Two life-changing university scholarship offers were awarded to St Paul’s Collegiate School student Bethany Langton during the September holiday break.
The first offer came through while Langton was at an Auckland café. Her phone buzzed with an email notification, it was from Otago University advising her that she had been awarded a $45,000 Academic Excellence Scholarship to cover the first three years of her undergraduate degree.
A few days later, while taking a break from study, Langton saw numerous phone calls and texts from friends asking if she had been successful with the University of Auckland Scholarship (the most sought after scholarship by New Zealand students). She had. The university awarded her the most that any New Zealand university awards a student for tertiary study, $50,000.
Langton says she was initially in “disbelief” but after many years of hard work “it felt amazing to get the reward.”
She was awarded the scholarships because of her academic rapport.
“Both scholarships were awarded because I display academic excellence with more than 90 excellence credits in NCEA level two and because I have an all-round ability in sport, culture, community service and leadership,” Langton explained.
Students only need to acquire 50 excellence credits to achieve an excellence endorsement in NCEA. The bright scholar achieved outstanding academic results through her love for all things science, taking biology, physics, and chemistry subjects to fuel her passion.
Earlier in the year she was selected as one of six New Zealand students to attend the London International Science Forum. At the forum Bethany heard from a variety of lectures from the “best scientific brains in the world.”
She also visiting a number of scientific establishments while attending the forum, including an inspirational trip to the Cambridge Cancer Research and Biomedical Research Centre.
“Speaking to pathologists and medical students at the research centre made the idea of studying or researching at Cambridge a possibility rather than a dream,” Langton said.
Langton has chosen to attend the University of Auckland. The science lover is going to study a Bachelor of Biomedicine in 2016 with the hopes to qualify for first year medicine in 2017.
