Posted on 15 July 2013
Pompeii
The University is delighted to announce that this year’s recipients of the Ellen Thomas Stanford Travel Grant are James Foster, Nina Kirk and Katie Bale.
The purpose of this travel grant is to provide funding to students looking to proceed in studies relating to Classics, Greek or Latin and more specifically for use to attend vacation courses or travel abroad to visit museums and archaeological sites relevant to their programme of study.
Each student, all from the University of Wales: Trinity Saint David, have each received £1,500 of funding to aid them in their studies and relevant travels.
James Foster is currently studying Ancient History in the School of Classics at the University’s Lampeter Campus, and has just completed his second year. He plans to use the grant to travel to Turkey at the beginning of 2014.
Speaking about what this grant means to his studies, James explained:
"It would simply be financially impossible for me to travel abroad for research purposes without the travel grant. It is extremely useful to be able to go out to the place you're studying or researching and see it first-hand. This grant will enable me to travel to the place I'm researching for my dissertation and will change my perceptions and ideas about my subject for the better."
Friends Nina Kirk and Katie Bale have both just completed their final year at UW: TSD studying Ancient History and Classical Studies respectively. They are both due to Graduate this month and recently returned from a trip to Italy which they were able to pay for with their respective travel grants.
With the award they booked a one week trip to Rome and Pompeii, and also Herculaneum and Sorrento, visiting sites such as the Forum, the Trevi Fountain and the Colosseum in Rome, as well as a trip to the Vatican City.
Speaking about the trip, Nina said:
“Visiting the ancient sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum was really exciting as we've been learning about these sites for the last 3 years. The award has helped ensure that we can really see everything and not have to worry about choosing between two sites due to money.
Going on to talk about her future plans Nina explained:
“In terms of how it will help with my studies, although I am graduating this July, I am hoping to become a Classics/Ancient History A Level teacher, and seeing these ancient sites first-hand will really help in my teaching skills and improve the knowledge I have which will in turn improve my teaching.
Also, since this trip has fortunately been fairly inexpensive, I am already looking at using the remainder of the grant to book another trip to Athens and Crete later on in the summer to visit the ancient sites there such as the Parthenon and the Minoan Palaces on Crete, further enhancing my knowledge of ancient Greece. This award means the two trips I've been planning for most of my life can happen”.
/Ends
For information about the Ellen Thomas Stanford Travel Grant, or any of the other Scholarships and grants which the University administers, please visit www.wales.ac.uk/scholarships