Katikati Student Wins $6000 BOP Education Trust Scholarship

Katikati College graduate Kyra Murray is heading to Victoria University this month after being awarded a science, technology and emerging industries scholarship through the Bay of Plenty Education Trust. The $6,000 grant will be distributed across her years of tertiary study as she pursues a career in biomedical science with the goal of becoming a pharmacist — a far cry from her earlier teenage interest in forensic science, but still firmly within the medical field.

Murray was among 19 students from Western and Eastern BOP coastal colleges who received the scholarship at a ceremony in Tauranga. She said she felt "complete disbelief" upon learning she had won. Other Western BOP recipients included students from Aquinas College, Bethlehem College, Mount Maunganui College, Ōtūmoetai College, and Pāpāmoa College, alongside peers from Tauranga Boys' College, Tauranga Girls' College, and Te Puke High School.

BOP Education Trust chairman Nick Earl noted that the trust, which has been operating since 1985, remains firmly committed to investing in the tertiary futures of young people across the rohe. To date, 428 students have benefited from its scholarships, with more than $2 million gifted in total funding. Murray is the daughter of Brett Murray and the late Billie Murray.

Originally published in Katikati News (Sun Media).