A Level Textiles students at Strode College had some fantastic news recently, when they secured substantial funding from The Doris Southcott Bursary.
Sue Green, Textiles teacher at Strode College, said: “I originally applied for £9000, so I was incredibly surprised and extremely grateful to be awarded £30,000! This will enable our students to achieve goals that may previously have been unfeasible due to costs.”
The Doris Southcott Bursary, a charitable trust based in Exeter, provides financial help to young people in Somerset, aged between 16 and 25, to enable them to advance their education in the field of fashion design, textiles and fabric technologies.
The Strode Art and Design teaching team are planning a subsidised student trip to the Graduate Fashion Week in London, which attracts 30,000 guests each June. The students will get to see the work of over 1,000 of the very best students and graduates from some of the most influential and inspiring fashion universities around the world.
Petrina Rochester, Head of Art and Design at Strode College said: “This is a fabulous opportunity for our students to witness cutting edge fashion from the best UK graduates and this will in turn inspire their own coursework. It is very exciting to be able to offer this exclusive trip at a greatly reduced fee. I’m delighted that there will be several former Strode students exhibiting their final degree collections on the runway this year.”
The funding will also sponsor several prizes at the Strode College Art and Design Department’s End of Year Show, that is open to the public from Tuesday 13 June until Wednesday 21 June, 9:30am-4pm (weekdays only). The Art and Design Department have also developed a bursary scheme for students to apply for financial help to assist their education in Fashion and Textiles.
Sue Green said: “Students are already writing individual plans, for example to purchase train tickets to see exhibitions that will help their creative research and enhance portfolios for interviews at universities and art colleges.
“We would like to give our sincere thanks to the trustees at The Doris Southcott Bursary who made it possible for us to make such a difference to so many of our students’ creative futures.”