Wellington Soldiers Memorial Club general manager, Stephen Hodge said he was impressed by two local grant recipients calling in to say thanks for the step up. Bonnie Sheridan and her father Wok are pictured with Stephen and Stella-May Miller, whose daughter Georgia had just phoned from Wollongong.
TWO LOCAL recipients of the Wellington – Stop the Brain Drain university grant scholarships were back home recently and called into the Wellington Soldiers Memorial Club to thank the club for backing the grant program conducted by Wellington Lions Club.
Bonnie Sheridan is in the middle of her Batchelor of Nursing studies at Wollongong University, have completed her HSC in 2024.
Interest in this three-year course started around the time her Nan, Beryl Sheridan was ill.
“I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do until Nan got sick and I saw how lovely the nurses were towards her when she was in palliative care,” Bonnie said.
“From this experience I felt I wanted to give back and follow that in the way those nurses did.”
She was she was thinking of doing theatre nursing, when she finishes her bachelorship.
“It’s a bit higher pay and also more interesting, but then later, I want to go into age care.”
Her $3000 grant will go towards accommodation.
“Mum and dad are paying for it at the moment; this will help a lot.”
Bonnie said she wanted to return to Wellington sometime in the future.
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Another grant recipient, Georgia Miller, caught up over the phone and said she had just finished a bridging course in her first semester at the University of Newcastle and moves on to a Batchelor of Social Work next term.
“I feel it is important for me to carry out social work back in my community,” she said.
“I’d like to come back, as I see a need both in the younger and older members of our community and would like to help them in my home town.”
Georgia said the grant would go towards payment of her accommodation.
Talking of her recent exams she said she thought she did well.
“I haven’t received all my official grades, but I passed all from my assessments, so that’s looking good.”
Both girls said they appreciated the grant program provided by the Soldiers Club and Lions and agreed that while the grants were of financial benefit in the short term, they are a great incentive for recipients to think closely at returning to their home town or a region to support communities like their own.