Four students from the University of Oxford have been chosen as the inaugural beneficiaries of the Everest Lewis Golden Foundation, enabling them to undertake a challenging and inspiring expedition to South Greenland next month.
With a shortfall in funding of £2,800 and the deadline fast approaching, second year Earth Sciences student Isabel Carter submitted an application to the Foundation, which was launched earlier this year by Everest Home Improvements to help aspiring individuals or groups achieve their ambitions.
Isabel and her teammates – three fellow Earth Sciences students – were granted the full £2,800 by the Foundation panel. Their expedition, which will begin on 28 June, will see them endeavour to create a geological map of Igaliku, South Greenland, and seek to inspire other young scientists.
The four women will spend several weeks working on a geological map of the Igaliku area. While part of the region is classed as a World Heritage Geopark, it has been almost 60 years since the area’s geology was last studied in detail.
They also plan to use the trip to inspire other young people to study Earth Sciences. They are planning a series of workshops in schools and extensive social media activity to draw attention to it as an important and exciting field of science.
Everest received numerous applications for the Spring 2018 round of its new Foundation, which was launched earlier this year with the aim of providing financial support to help ambitious people fulfil an extraordinary talent or personal challenge.
The judging panel chose to support this particular cause for a number of reasons, including the scale of the team’s ambition and the notable difference the grant would make to them.
Isabel commented, “I only heard about the Foundation because my mum spotted an article about it in a newspaper she was reading. We’ve applied for a lot of grants so didn’t really expect to be successful and certainly didn’t expect that Everest would agree to give us the full £2,800 we needed! The other girls were shocked when I told them and we’re all very grateful to Everest. Earth Sciences is a really exciting, important subject, but lots of people haven’t even heard of it. We hope our trip will help to inspire other people to study Earth Sciences, by showing them just what can be achieved.”
The Foundation was named in honour of one of the company’s founders, Lewis Golden OBE, who passed away in late 2017. A war veteran, accountant and philanthropist, Lewis Golden was an active and energetic member of the community who embraced every opportunity, striving throughout his 94 years to achieve success and support others.
Lewis Golden’s son, Jonathan Golden, was one of the judges on the Foundation panel. He commented, “Isabel and her team are clearly passionate about science and their enthusiasm really came across in their application. I can certainly believe that they’ll help to encourage more young people to consider a career in science. I am very pleased to see the Lewis Golden Foundation support this project.”
Martin Troughton, Marketing Director at Everest, added, “{{Lewis Golden was an incredible inspiration to those he met, so it’s fitting that his legacy will help others to realise their ambitions.}} Isabel and her team had already managed to raise much of what they needed, so we’re delighted that we can make up the shortfall.”
Everest has a history of supporting inspirational people to help them achieve their goals. It has previously sponsored the likes of war veteran and mountain climber Les Binns, Medway Women’s Rugby Football Club, and eight-year-old Aston MacAndrew-Uren – who is following his father, grandfather and great grandfather into motor racing.
The Lewis Golden Foundation will select at least one candidate to support each quarter, with up to £40,000 funding available across the year. The deadline for the next funding round is 6th August and applications can be made online here
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Notes to editors:
Pictured (L-R): Isabel Carter (St Anne’s College), Camille Lecoeuche (St Anne’s College), Tamsin Savvides (University College), Joanna Male (St Edmund Hall)
For further information about the Everest Lewis Golden Foundation and Lewis Golden OBE, visit http://www.everest.co.uk/lewis-golden-foundation/
About Everest:
Everest has been at the forefront of innovation in the home improvement industry for over 50 years, offering an impressive range of high quality windows and doors in UPVC, aluminium and timber, as well as conservatories, orangeries and other home improvement products. With factories in Wales and South-East England, each Everest window is custom made and fitted to the exact millimetre. Its products are continuously tested to the latest security standards as well as a number of bespoke tests demonstrating thermal efficiency, strength and more, ensuring that the homes of Everest customers are some of the warmest, safest and most secure in the country.
www.everest.co.uk
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