AWLA has established a dedicated scholarship fund for its new law student scholarship.
We have for a long time offered the Margaret Wilson scholarship to exceptional women law students in Auckland, which we have (and will continue to in the interim) funded from our normal operations.
In 2022, for the first time, we are offering a new scholarship – directed at women heading to law school in Auckland, and for whom studying law would otherwise be a financial challenge. We know that the legal profession lacks a diversity of backgrounds, and our hope is that this scholarship will in a small way help counter that.
Our intention is to fund a student at an amount of $5000 per year, for four years. This means that each of these scholars will receive a total of $20,000 from AWLA, to help them through university. This is a significant financial commitment for AWLA. To ensure the financial sustainability of this, we intend to fundraise for these scholars in $20,000 increments, and reaching that threshold will ensure that another scholar is funded. We hope that we will be able to offer this scholarship every year, but this will depend on us having raised that scholar’s $20,000.
We also intend to mentor, support, champion and work with these scholars as they progress through their studies, and into the profession. We hope to create a community of AWLA scholars who can support those who come after them. We know we can count on the support of the AWLA community to champion these women, and we look forward to sharing updates on their progress in due course.
Kickstarted from AWLA’s own funds, and through donations from generous donors, we have successfully raised our first $20,000. This means we are now fundraising for the next scholar – hopefully to be funded for 2023, and so on.
Applications are now open for the 2022 scholar. More information on the criteria and how to apply for this scholarship can be found here – https://awla.org.nz/awla-new-scholarship-2022/.
Donations
AWLA would like to thank the following donors:
- A senior member of AWLA
- Laura Mikkelsen
- Jacque Lethbridge
- Jenny Baldwin
- Miriam Dean
- Maria Dew
- Denese Bates QC
- Antonia Fisher QC
- Richard and Sarah-Jane Lawson
- Justice Anne Hinton
FAQs
Why $20,000, when smaller amounts could support more people?
We want this scholarship to really make a difference to someone who would otherwise struggle to attend law school. We realise that raising $20,000 for each scholar is a big commitment, and will limit the amount of students we can support, but the costs of attending law school these days are very high (this will not cover a student’s entire costs), so the amount needs to be significant to really have an impact.
How can I help?
The first thing we need is donations. So please consider donating yourself, circulating this to your friends and ask them to consider donating, and ask your employer to consider donating. If you have ideas for fundraising, or if you would like to talk to us about donations at any stage, please contact us.
Once we have scholars at university, and then entering the profession, we’ll be asking the AWLA community to support and awhi them, to help ensure their success.
What is the credit card transaction fee?
Our payments provider charges us a fee for processing credit card payments. If you donate enough to cover this fee, AWLA will use that money to pay the payment provider. Otherwise, those fees are covered by AWLA’s usual resources. If you want to help us avoid these fees, please make your donation using the bank transfer option.
Why are only students living in Auckland eligible?
For 2022, we decided to keep eligibility limited to residents of the Auckland region. This is primarily because this is our first year offering this scholarship, and we wanted to keep it administratively manageable while we build our capability. Ensuring we disseminate this opportunity to the right people is a big job, and limiting this to Auckland helps. Over time, as we build our capacity we hope to be able to extend this – particularly to Te Tai Tokerau, as the Auckland universities are the closest law schools for these students.
Who can I contact for more information about the scholarship fund, or to discuss donation options?
You can email us on admin@awla.nz with any questions, and someone will give you a call if you want to talk.
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash