The generosity of one of Beaconhills College’s founding families will enable the school to offer a new 2023 senior scholarship for a deserving local student.
To mark the College’s 40th Anniversary this year, the college recently launched an inaugural Foundation Scholarship campaign.
The call went out for donations towards the $40,000 scholarships, funded under the College’s Beacon of Hope Foundation.
But the campaign received an unexpected $40,000 boost from Stephen Creese, whose father Nigel Creese AM (1927-2018) has strong historical ties to the school.
The search is now on to find a deserving student recipient of the first new scholarship, who is ready to join the college in 2023.
The Creese Scholarship will support a student who cannot access a Beaconhills education due to financial disadvantage and covers the cost of a full scholarship at the College’s Pakenham Campus starting in Year 10, 2023.
Mr Creese’s father Nigel Creese AM (1927-2018) was an innovative and inspirational educator who played a significant role in the college’s history.
He created the Latin version of the Beaconhills motto – Lux Luceat – wrote the college prayer and served as interim principal and board member.
He is also a college house patron.
The Creese Scholarship is the first scholarship launched under the school’s Beacon of Hope Foundation.
The Foundation scholarships are separate to the school’s annual scholarship offerings and honour the vision of its founders and the spirit of giving which defines Beaconhills.
Nigel Creese and his wifeVal – who recently passed away – were both passionate educators who studied at Oxford University before moving to New Zealand in 1963 where Mr Creese was Headmaster of Christ’s College in Christchurch.
He later served more than 17 years as headmaster of Melbourne Grammar School and was first national chair of the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia (AHISA), having played a pivotal role in its establishment.
Stephen Creese said his parents understood how education could change lives and would have been great supporters of the Foundation Creese Scholarship.
“They would have seen it – as I do – as providing an opportunity for a person who is prepared to embrace that opportunity to get the best education they can, in the hope that they, in turn, will give back to society in the future,” he said.
Beaconhills College now invites applications by Monday 5 December from motivated students who will embrace all aspects of college life, from extra-curricular activities to community service.
