Talented Douglas Myers Scholar Bound For Cambridge

Another Talented Douglas Myers Scholar Bound For Cambridge

Sonia Bracegirdle, Dux of Epsom Girls Grammar School last year, has been awarded the Douglas Myers Scholarship for 2004.

Sonia was selected from a short list of six outstanding young scholars from secondary schools throughout New Zealand, to go to Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge, to study a BA (Hons) in Natural Sciences in October this year.

The Douglas Myers Scholarship was established in 2000 to enable top-ranking New Zealand students to study at Cambridge, eventually to bring back what they have learnt to benefit New Zealand.

The scholarship’s capital fund of $3 million enables one New Zealand secondary school student a year to go to Cambridge University for up to four years. Each scholarship is worth an estimated $200,000.

Sonia is the fourth Douglas Myers scholar, the previous recipients being: Ruvin Mendis, Newlands College, Wellington; Pascal Millaire, King’s College, Auckland; and Irene Klymchuk, Hillcrest College, Hamilton. All three have continued to perform highly academically as well as involving themselves fully in the all-round life of Cambridge University.

In addition to being outstanding academically, with a score of 464 in Bursary 2003, including first in New Zealand in chemistry with 96%, Sonia enjoys a wide variety of sporting and extracurricular activities such as mountain biking, triathlon, cycling and athletics. She plays the piano and toured Japan and Taiwan in 2001 with her school choir. Sonia has been described by her teachers as “very gifted, wonderfully conscientious, and focused”.

She is currently studying biochemistry, statistics, and physics at The University of Auckland this semester before she departs for Cambridge in September. Sonia lives in Kohimarama, Auckland.

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