Dr James Thomas Memorial Prize and Scholarship 2010
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
Gabbie Evans and Rebecca Hopkins with Dr John Jewell
Gabbie Evans and Rebecca Hopkins have won the second Dr James Thomas Memorial Prize while MA student Simon Bond will receive this year’s Dr James Thomas Scholarship.
The Memorial Prize and Scholarship were established following the death of School lecturer James Thomas in August 2007.
James’ parents set up the fund in memory of their son with the aim of taking positive action towards the problem of student poverty – an issue which James felt passionately about.
The Memorial Prize is open to secondary schools in the South Wales valleys region and requires the submission of an original piece of journalism writing.
Gabbie and Rebecca from Pen Y Dre High School, Merthyr Tydfil, won with a feature story about hoodies in society which was described by Dr John Jewell who adjudicated the competition and presented the award as: “A balanced and informative article which looked at both sides of the argument before coming down firmly with the opinion of the authors.”
Simon Bond was awarded the Dr James Thomas Scholarship
Leah Harris finished second with a news piece about Barak Obama’s failure to close the Guantanamo Bay detention centre while Lauren John and Melissa James finished third with a feature discussing the prevalence of racism in society.
Simon Bond, a mature student at the school has been awarded the first Dr James Thomas Scholarship.
For Simon, who joined Cardiff University to study a postgraduate Masters in Political Communication, the scholarship will mean less financial pressure and more freedom to concentrate on his studies.