Award encouraging women’s education

ANNE HARDIE

Trying to study full time with the financial pressures of raising a family of four was a stressful time for Julia Grigg and receiving a Nelson Soroptimist Education Trust award eased both the financial and emotional pressures.

The trust offers up to 20 awards annually of about $1,500 each to women and girls who are enrolled in full time or part-time tertiary study or apprenticeship.

For Julia, study was a long haul. She studied psychology parttime for seven years, on and off, with young children, and she describes it as “really horrible” due to the pressures it imposed on the family.

Julia and her husband Garrett had decided to get married after three children, so all the children could be in the photo. Then number four came along, adding morning sickness, postnatal depression and a sick baby into the challenges for studying, so study plans were put on hold.

In 2015 she decided to take the plunge and study full-time at NMIT, which meant Garrett working long hours to support the family on one income for the next three years. It was tough, she says.

In her third year she applied for the trust’s Janice Neame Scholarship and the money relieved that pressure. It meant she could get car repairs that were needed to get a warrant of fitness and it paid for some of the essential childcare so she could study.

“It helped me with financial stress which gave me time to sit down and focus on how to get my car warranted and cart my kids around and be able to study to give them a better life.”

The award provided more than just the financial assistance though, she says. It relieved the emotional stress that went handin-hand with financial stress and it gave her a boost in confidence.

“It was acknowledgement I was on the right path and had support behind me. I was part of a