Xavier Roughan (15) is studying at Cambridge University after winning a scholarship for his idea about a new treatment for dairy cows.
Xavier Roughan (15) is studying at Cambridge University after winning a scholarship for his idea about a new treatment for dairy cows.
Xavier Roughan is a young man determined to make every day count and to make his mark in agriculture.
Xavier is just 15 years old, but in many ways, he’s already lived a whole life.
The second eldest of five siblings raised in Invercargill by their dad Nick Roughan,Xavier completed three years of treatment for leukaemia last year and, for the past two school terms, has been studying at Scots College in Wellington alongside his brother Bentley, 14, after they both achieved a general excellence scholarship.
It’s an even more prestigious scholarship that took Xavier offshore last month to the United Kingdom, but not before working hard to raise funds to cover flights and other outstanding costs of the programme.
After an email introduction to the International Future Innovators scholarship competition run by Immerse Education in London, Xavier wrote an essay about his idea for a product for the farming community.
Xavier’s idea is a different kind of non-antibiotic treatment for mastitis in dairy cows, which has clinical trials supporting the concept’s viability.
He can’t go into the details too much yet, but it could have a global application worth up to $4 billion annually.
Xavier was awarded a 25% scholarship for the Future Doctors & Scientists summer programme of Immerse Education, and is now studying biotechnology at the University of Cambridge.
To help amass the other 75% of the requisite money, Xavier secured an $11,000 grant from the Youth Education Fund, a sub-fund of the Perpetual Guardian Foundation.
The Youth Education Fund was founded by Nannette Cooper, whose legacy also helps to support the Foundation’s Medical Research Fund.
Xavier said the grant from the Perpetual Guardian Foundation’s Youth Education Fund came about after the Foundation learned about his story and contacted his dad.
“They’d heard about the Immerse Education scholarship, and they wanted to speak to me about it.
“They were generous enough to give me the grant of $11,000 to help me get over there and do the programme.
“The process was pretty easy. I’m very thankful for this opportunity.”
Xavier said he, his father and siblings used to be on a family dairy farm, which helped them with a lot of things, but now they have to find other ways to cover his scholarship costs.
“My dad is doing all this and looking after five kids on his own – he’s pretty special.”
Xavier’s dad has set up a Givealittle page to help get the word out to raise the remaining funds.
Speaking to Xavier in the UK, he was close to finishing his three weeks of study at Cambridge University, along with four other classmates from various parts of the world.
His classes included learning about genes, proteins, plasm, and building and growing bacteria.
Xavier is a semi-commercial beekeeper.
“This is all new to me, and I have been like a sponge taking everything in,” he said.
“I lost a few years of study due to my treatment, so I am certainly making up for it now.
“My teacher here has been wonderful and has given me ideas to work on when I return home.”
Always looking for a challenge, when Xavier was 10, he saw a bee suit hanging in a store and thought to himself; “That would look good on me”.
When his birthday rolled around, his dad asked him if he wanted a new bike or a bee suit.
“The answer was simple: a bee suit,” Xavier said.
He manages to fit being a semi-commercial beekeeper, with beehives predominantly in mānuka flowering areas, around his studies.
Xavier managed five beehives at his primary school, Waihopai, and still manages three beehives at his former preparatory school in Canterbury, Waihi School.
He presently has 50 beehives, and with his friend and classmate Will, Xavier is selling the honey for Scots College’s Year 10 community project.
The pair is hoping for $1000 in sales, and all funds raised will be donated to Child Cancer Charities.
They are also hoping to donate to the Wellington City Mission.
And what does the future hold for Xavier?
Biotechnology will be on his agenda, maybe heading down the science route.
For now, he will be happy returning home and catching up with brother Bentley and dad Nick, who have always been there to support Xavier in his life’s journey.
To help with Xavier’s studies at the University of Cambridge, visit his Givealittle page.
