Apply for a Scholarship

Need support for higher learning?

The Eastern Bay Community Foundation currently holds five scholarships:

Jean Smithson Nursing Scholarship
Rod McPherson Memorial Rural Scholarship
Bridger Family Trades Scholarship (for students of Ōpōtiki College)
Tū Kahikatea Scholarship (for students of Ōpōtiki College)
The Bay Education Fund -MK Lamont (for undergraduate or postgraduate students at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, for more information click here)
The Dick Anstis STEM Scholarship

Scholarship applications for the Jean Smithson Nursing Scholarship the Rod McPherson Memorial Rural Scholarship and the Dick Anstis STEM Scholarship open on August 1st and close on August 30th (for study in the following year / semester.)

Scholarship applications for The Bay Education Fund are managed by Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington

Jean Smithson Nursing Scholarship

Applications will be accepted on an annual basis, for 'return to registration' nursing, along with specialist or post graduate study as a Nurse Practitioner, school health nurse, palliative care, rural nursing, wound care and rehabilitation etc. Any study MUST benefit the Opotiki District, and or the Opotiki coastal communities.

Rod McPherson Memorial Rural Scholarship

Awarded annually to a young person from the Eastern Bay of Plenty seeking a course of study at tertiary level, with the view to a career in agriculture.

The Dick Anstis STEM Scholarship

The Dick Anstis STEM Scholarship has been established in 2025 to support students from the Eastern Bay of Plenty studying Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, in their second or subsequent years of study (undergraduate or postgraduate studies).