The Howard de Walden Estate supports two final year estranged students with a £9,000 scholarship each

For the fourth year running, Howard de Walden has generously funded two annual scholarships for final year students who are estranged from their families. The scholarships support students with accommodation and living expenses, and as a result of the funding and the time it allowed the students to focus on their studies, previous scholars who were both averaging upper second-class honours graduated with first-class honours degrees. 
Laura Sanchez Hincapie, one of this year's scholars said: “I applied for Howard de Walden’s Accommodation scholarship because I am an estranged student. I do not have any support from my family whatsoever and being a full-time student has been challenging. When I heard that I got the scholarship, I couldn't believe I was so blessed. I am over the moon; I thought scholarships like those were not really granted to people like me. Now, because of the scholarship I am going to be able to focus on my degree, get better grades and apply for the Scientist Training Programme.”

Ashley Nixon, Head of Community Investment at The Howard de Walden Estate said: “The community investment approach of Howard de Walden is focused locally, seeking to maximise our social impact in Marylebone and the wider Westminster area. With this in mind, we are delighted to have had the opportunity to partner with the University of Westminster in recent years, providing both financial and mentoring support to a number of their students. We appreciate that this is a challenging time for those in higher education and are pleased to see that our programme of estranged student grants has helped some remarkable young people reach their full potential.”

Jordan Scammell, Head of Development and Fundraising at the University of Westminster, added: “We are delighted that The Howard de Walden Estate have continued to support some of our most vulnerable students for another year, at a critical time of their studies – their third and final year. Estranged students don’t have the family support system we often take for granted. This scholarship is a real lifeline and ensures these students can focus on their studies, instead of a part-time job to survive in central London. I’m particularly pleased this year to see our students from Architecture and Biomedical Science – areas which align with Howard de Walden’s interest. Thank you.”

Alongside the scholarships that Howard de Walden provide, they also participated in the Westminster Working Cultures UK virtual programme for the past two years running. The programme provided students with the opportunity to learn about the professional environment at The Howard de Walden Estate, and to hear from a range of colleagues who will share details of their own career path and valuable advice to support Westminster students’ professional journey.

A number of staff also participate in mentoring Westminster students through the Career Mentoring Scheme, and over the summer, launched their first paid internship opportunity which was developed for a Westminster graduate.

Feeding back on the internship, the inaugural intern commented: “I really valued the fact that the internship incorporated different property sectors, allowing me to not only get a taste of the office lifestyle but to get some knowledge and experience of the different fields within property. As we know, property has a lot of areas and sometimes being a student, you might not know what side you’d want to go towards, as graduation starts to creep up. Therefore, having an internship that offers a rotation of teams, is something very helpful. I can say that, through this experience, I was able to gain some certainty about what I would be interested in focusing on after graduation.”

To find out more about how you can support scholarships at Westminster, email [email protected]. For information on setting up a paid internship, contact [email protected].