2023 Beneficiaries

Inspired by her foster carer, Rose Smith studied English and Creative Writing at York St John’s University. However, she decided to switch to criminology, with an ambition to go into the police force. Increasingly, she became disillusioned with current policing policies, and “stumbled into humanitarian work” when a friend invited her to help sorting donated clothes for shipping to Ukraine.

As a result, Rose is now reading for an MSc in Disaster Management and Resilience at Coventry University, with a view either to working abroad – “to help in any disaster where they’d let me” - or to work with charities at home.  EBSF has granted her a postgraduate bursary of £3,000.

Also inclining towards policing, care-leaver Carla Byrne-Maye was inspired to love learning by her carers and teachers at her Primary School, Aspiring to go to university, she studied for an Extended BTEC in Public Services, with the aim of becoming a police officer.

But instead of this, she decided to pursue a career she personally felt could help people more directly, winning a degree in psychology and now studying for MSci in Psychology and Counselling to become a registered counsellor, and now exploring working within prisons. EBSF has given Carla a £3,000 bursary to support her in her studies.

Coming to Britain from Nigeria and being taken into care, Deborah Raji decided she wanted to study medicine, and achieved A level with distinction in applied science and applied psychology. She won a place to study Bio-Science at the University of Lincoln. Deborah is particularly interested in neonatology, working with very young babies

Although she is now a British citizen, Deborah’s citizenship was delayed through bureaucratic error, and she has no access to student loans in her first year of study. The EBSF has given her a grant of £2,000.