2024 Beneficiaries
During 2024 the Eve Brook Scholarship Fund supported 11 young people through postgraduate courses with our £3,000 bursaries. The last few years has seen a significant increase of Birmingham care-leavers going on to post-graduate study. 2024’s tally was the largest number of Birmingham care-leavers ever to undertake post-graduate courses.
EBSF granted all our 2024 post-graduate students our £3,000 post-graduate bursary. They included:
In care through parts of her childhood, permanently excluded from her first high school, Karis Ryland gained a first in Law (LLB) at the University of Worcester, and has embarked on a post-graduate legal practice course at the University of Law.
Following intermittent periods in care, Karis was subject to a full care order at the age of 14. Excluded from one school and dropping out of another, Karis was working at a pub when she realized her options were “being slightly skint and stressed now or for the rest of my life”. She enrolled for an access course at Bournville College, submitted a hopeful UCAS application and was offered a place at Worcester. In the first year she experienced “imposter syndrome” but by the end of her third year she had achieved a first. She had also won the Parkinson Wright prize for best student engagement as well as her academic achievement. She was offered to work with Parkinson Wright as a Wills Advisor, following a successful placement at the firm, which is now her full-time role.
Karis had been labelled disruptive at school, with very little attention paid to her mental health. She worked hard to maintain jobs, to gain independence through owning a car and passing her driving test (on the seventh attempt!), and to get to university. She was one of a cohort of students who received a £100 book token from EBSF, with which she bought a book on Wills when she started her new role. Karis turned her life around because “I wanted to do more; I didn’t want that to be it”.
Armed with her undergraduate first, Karis’s online legal practice course (with additional Masters) will enable her to qualify as a solicitor. The Eve Brook Scholarship Fund awarded Karis a post-graduate bursary.
In care for eleven years, Carlene McCutcheon decided to go on to higher education after she left school and realised she missed it. She studied for a BTech for a year, but then transferred to the Open University, where she gained a certificate of higher education in Business and Spanish. With this qualification she was able to study for a Business Management BA at Wolverhampton, gaining a first.
In the last year of her undergraduate degree Carlene drew up a business plan for a new company she wanted to start, providing boxes of products for professional make-up artists. Also as part of her course, she drew up a marketing plan for her project, which would be unique in the UK. Torn between starting her company as an independent businessworman and going into marketing professionally, she decided to do an MSc in Innovation and Entrepreneurship, also at Wolverhampton, partly to decide which pathway to take.
Carlene was the first member of her family to go to University.
Meya Lindo studied Criminology and Psychology as an undergraduate at Coventry University, gaining a BA (2.1). Her intention at that point was to become a probation or support officer, helping to rehabilitate those convicted of a criminal offence.. In care from her late teens, Meya was inspired by advice from her foster carer and aftercare worker to apply to do a postgraduate degree.
Meya is a volunteer with a charity, Emerge Worldwide, which conducts workshops and encourages awareness of international sex trafficking. The course she has chosen to do for her MA is in Terrorism, International Crime and Global Security, again at Coventry. Meya hopes that her new degree will lead to a career with the security services or another branch of government.
EBSF welcomed Meya to university with a £100 book token and then supported her with travel expenses later on in her undergraduate course.
In care since 2012, Anisa Hussain was inspired by her foster carer to think about first an undergraduate and then a post-graduate course in law. She studied media studies at BTech level at James Watt College of further education (part of Birmingham Metropolitan), but was concerned about the employment prospects of the subject. With her BTech (A level equivalent) she decided to change course and study Sociology and Criminology at foundation course level at Birmingham City University.
Passing her foundation course, Anisa switched to law and passed her law degree (LLB) with honours. Now she is studying for a Masters degree in law (LLM) at Birmingham City University. Alongside with professional legal practice, will enable her to become a solicitor. Because of her life experience, she is particularly interested in working in family law. She will continue to live with the foster carer who inspired her.
Having studied Childhood Education Studies, Mevlyn Welsh has gone on to study for a MSc in Psychology of Mental Health and Wellbeing, with the ambition of undertaking a PhD and practicing as a clinical psychologist.
In care from the age of four, Mevlyn was inspired by her foster carer to pursue her educational goals to the fullest. Mevlyn continued to strive despite her foster carer's death, when Mevlyn was 15 She won her Childhood Education BA at University College, Birmingham, and is undertaking her masters’ degree at the University of Wolverhampton. Mevlyn's family history of mental health issues sparked her interest in psychology, and she intends to use her knowledge and experience to help those who face similar challenges. As her undergraduate work focused on supporting children with special needs, her current study will lead her to work with adults also.
She plans to create a non-profit organisation to support young people in care to transition to independent living.
Hamoudy Aziz was attracted to psychology because he wanted to understand himself and to help others to do the same. He was in care from 2015 to 2021, and gained a BSc in Psychology at Coventry University. Post-graduate study is necessary to pursue specialist fields like clinical and forensic psychology, so he began a postgraduate Psychology course, also at Coventry, in September.
A masters degree will also enable him to practice educational psychology, and this work with children, and support their mental health and well-being. He sees his studies as a pathway to making a living out of helping others.
Marcus Phoenix thought he was going to study business and finance – the subjects of his BTEC at Matthew Boulton College – but despite his aptitude he switched to studying his hobby interest, animation, at the University of Teesside, where he gained a 2:2.
In care from 2014 to 2018, Marcus was a student governor at Teesside and – having added creative and technical skills to his business knowledge, he decided to do a course in computer programming to prepare himself for an MSc in Applied Artificial Intelligence, also at Teesside. The course allows him to apply AI to animation: as he puts it, not eliminate human artists, but to remove many tedious tasks, so the artist can focus on the art.
His ambition is to work self employed in AI-assisted animation.
In addition, EBSF supported a Ukrainian care-leaver studying for a Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) with the Arthur Terry Learning Partnership in North Birmingham. The year-long course gives graduates Qualified Teacher Status, which will enable her to pursue a teaching career, initially as a primary school teacher.
Although born in the Czech Republic, the student is Ukrainian by origin and has family in the west of the country. In care from 2017 to 2021, she worked in schools while gaining a Level 3 Teaching Assistant qualification.
However, she realised she had the potential to be a classroom teacher. Her interests also extend to criminology and law enforcement. In addition to her studies, she volunteers with West Midlands Police as a Cadet Leader, teaching young people about policing.
Among our undergraduate beneficiaries in 2024 was:
Leahanna Powell. who always wanted to run her own business. In foster care and a children’s home from 11 to 16, Leahanna dropped out of college but won a place on an access course at the Global Banking School in Birmingham, affiliated to the University of Suffolk. In 2024 she was in her second full year at the school, studying a BA course including business planning, law and decision making. She is considering a career in property management.
Leahanna has three children – a girl and two boys - and although she received some assistance with childcare from student finance, she had to provide a proportion herself which she found difficult with other costs. EBSF is keen that childcare commitments don’t prevent care-leavers from achieving their ambitions in higher education, and the Fund helped Leahanna with these costs, and with books for her course.