grounded. You definitely have to work hard here, but city life can also be rewarding and re-energising on so many levels. As E.B. White famously wrote, “It can destroy an individual, or it can fulfill him, depending a good deal on luck. No one should come to New York to live unless he is willing to be lucky.”
I do feel that Americans have a particular fondness for Kiwis, the pioneering history of our country, and our can-do attitude. That’s been a fun part of living here. I’ve met several successful New Zealanders in the city, the most impressive and successful probably being Craig Nevill-Manning, a computer science Ph.D. from Canterbury who famously persuaded Google to start a campus in New York City in 2003, where it now employs several thousand engineers. New York is a humbling city because you’re surrounded by so many successful people on a scale that we’re simply not accustomed to in New Zealand. I view that as a good thing; it always keeps you
Happy to help
Matt Foulds (right)
Attending Cambridge University was a fantastic experience and I hope to be able to help other Old Boys find a path there. I’m always happy to offer advice and counsel. If you would like to ask Matt a question, please email us on ccoba@ccoba.com and we will pass it on.
always constantly evolving, with new things for you to experience popping up every day. And the surrounding countryside within two hours of New York is stunning, whether it’s the Hamptons beaches or the mountains upstate in the Catskills and Vermont.
THE QUADRANGLE Scholarships
The CCOBA Committee has recently changed the way the Old Boys’ Scholarship Fund will make awards.
The Scholarship Fund was established in 1922 and since then has grown to around $800,000. To maintain regular growth, the committee seeks to distribute no more than 4.0% p.a. on average over rolling three-year periods. The terms of the Scholarship Fund are broad (and are outlined in our constitution, registered with Charities Services) and the convention for many years has been the alleviation of acute hardship. As a result, we generally make a number of small awards each year. Reflecting the focus on acute hardship, each award has been for one year only (though boys have received awards in successive years). Our experience has been that with the rising cost of education, these awards have
become relatively less meaningful, while acute hardship is also now being addressed by College directly via Bursar’s Scholarships. Additionally, the single-year focus means it is often turned down by parents, which is an indication that it has begun to be seen as a discretionary pool rather than a scholarship in the true sense of the word. In discussion with the College, we will nowmake a single large award each year for between a third and a half of fees. Each award will be for five years, giving families a fairer chance of planning their boy’s education. It will be formally known as the Old Boys’ Scholarship and will be awarded in consultation with the School.
The key criterion is that the scholarship be awarded to a
new entrant (preferably but not necessarily the descendant of an Old Boy) who would not otherwise have been able to attend College for financial reasons but who, due to his academic attributes and character, would benefit from being educated at College. The first year for this new award will be 2017. It is worth emphasising that this is a new way of achieving the aims of the Scholarship Fund. The committee has made a commitment to the school to try out this new approach for five years. We believe and hope it will have a better chance of making a bigger difference to some deserving boys.
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Christ’s College Canterbury
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