Former Girls' High student awarded Cambridge scholarship

Tessa Morgan with chairman of the Woolf Fisher Trust, Sir Noel Robinson. Photo/Supplied

A former Rotorua Girls' High School student has received a life changing scholarship to the University of Cambridge.

Tessa Morgan, 22, was awarded the Woolf Fisher Scholarship along with three other young New Zealand graduates which will enable them to undertake their doctoral studies at the prestigious university in England.

The Woolf Fisher Scholarship is funded by the Woolf Fisher Trust, supported by the Cambridge Trust. It covers the students' study and living costs at Cambridge and is estimated to have a value of $300,000 per student, making it one of the most generous scholarships available to New Zealand students.

Ms Morgan will study her PhD in palliative and end-of-life care with Cambridge's Department of Public Health and Primary Care. Her topic will consider whether gender influences family caregiving practices at end of life and consequently, how to design effective strategies to help support the increasing number of family caregivers providing end-of-life care.

Her goal is to be a leader in the field of palliative care and to lead a New Zealand-based research institute.

While at Rotorua Girls' High School Ms Morgan was awarded the Rotorua Young Achievers Award and the Rotorua Energy Trust Role Model Award in recognition of her academic, sporting and community achievements.

She has a Bachelor of Arts majoring in history and politics and is working towards her BA (Honours) at the University of Auckland.

She represented New Zealand earlier this year at the U21 Global Ageing Conference in Mexico, where she presented on the MBIE-funded Aging Well Social Isolation in Older Adults study.

Sir Woolf Fisher (1912-1975), co-founder of Fisher & Paykel, set up his trust in 1960 to recognise and reward excellence in education. The scholarship selects young New Zealanders based on their outstanding academic ability, leadership potential as well as their integrity, vision and capacity for work.

The scholars for 2017 are Massey University graduate Jonathan Barnard; Amy Hill from the University of Canterbury; Liam Jolliffe from Victoria University of Wellington; and Tessa Morgan from the University of Auckland.