Jesus College, University of Oxford, has awarded Ms. Rawan Yaghi the Junior Members’ Scholarship (JCJM) to pursue an undergraduate degree in Italian and Linguistics, commencing in October 2013.
The JCJM is a full academic scholarship available to a student in their first or subsequent year at a university in Gaza. It is supported by undergraduate and postgraduate students at the College, the Governing Body of Jesus College, the Hoping Foundation, the A. M. Qattan Foundation, and the Hani Qaddumi Scholarship Foundation.
The scholarship was launched in 2011 as a student-led initiative, headed by undergraduate Emily Dreyfus. It aims to provide a talented student from Gaza with the opportunity to study for a degree without disruption, so that they can achieve their full academic potential. It is expected that the recipient will return to Gaza after graduation.
Rawan Yaghi, who lives in Gaza, was a Library member at the Qattan Centre for the Child, where she used online resources to start her own blog. In 2011, her love of writing and languages led her to start a degree in English Literature at the Islamic University of Gaza. Rawan was then awarded first place in the Gaza War Creative Writing Contest for her short story From Beneath. Her passion for literature developed further when she travelled to the University of Iowa, USA, where she was invited to participate in Between the Lines, its prestigious International Writing Programme. More information about the Junior Members’ Scholarship is available on the Jesus College website.