King’s collaborates with Canon Collins Trust to develop future leaders

Canon Collins Trust was founded in 1981 and has supported 3,000 students from sub-Saharan Africa studying at local and UK universities. Their mission is ‘to create opportunities for people to develop their full potential through education and serve as agents of positive change in their countries’. In particular they are seeking to create tomorrow’s leaders.

Selina Maenzanise, the first King’s Canon Collins Scholar.

Kefilwe is about to embark on an MSc in Dental Public Health at the Dental Institute. She spoke about her reaction to being awarded a place at King’s: ‘It is an opportunity of a lifetime, one that I never thought would come my way. I see this as a challenge, which I am happy to embrace. With what I learn from King’s, I can go back home and make a tangible and valuable contribution to my community. Oral health education is an area that is overlooked in my country. More focus is placed on treatment rather than prevention. This has led to oral health knowledge being alarmingly low across the whole population’.

The first student on the programme, Selina Maenzanise, who is from Zimbabwe, has studied for a Masters in Disasters, Adaptation & Development in the Department of Geography. Reflecting on her experiences so far, she said: ‘Being the inaugural awardee of a scholarship at one of the world’s best universities has been a humbling yet fulfilling experience, one that I will certainly cherish for the rest of my life.

‘This opportunity has changed the course of my life forever. The world-class course options, each taught by renowned and internationally acclaimed experts in their relevant fields accorded me the opportunity to get acquainted with the current debates and global best practices in disaster risk reduction, adaptation and development’.

Professor Vaughan Robinson, Director of the Graduate School said: ‘The College is delighted to be contributing to capacity- building in Africa, an initiative that adds to the work already completed by our African Leadership Centre (ALC),which is due to begin a new period in its growth in the coming academic year’.

Further details of the scholarship for 2013 entry will be found later in the year by visiting the Canon Collins website or the King’s Graduate Funding Database.

To read the full profile student with Selina Maenzanise, visit the King’s website.