Cornell-bound on $100k scholarship

University of Otago student Bonnie Scarth, who is going to Cornell University in New York to...
University of Otago student Bonnie Scarth, who is going to Cornell University in New York to study suicide prevention after being awarded a Fulbright Scholarship. Photo by Gregor Richardson.
A student is leaving Dunedin next week for an upstate New York university on a scholarship package worth more than $100,000.

Bonnie Scarth (35) is heading to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where she will continue her PhD research on suicide prevention.

The University of Otago student said she was ''shocked and pleased'' after being awarded a Fulbright Scholarship for a year's research.

''I have a lot of drive and passion for my research to make positive changes.''

Cornell University had a high suicide rate among its students and the suicide rate in New York state prisons was higher than the US national average, she said.

''It's the ideal place - grimly - to study some of these issues because there are a lot of different interventions in place there.''

She would volunteer at some of the suicide intervention programmes in New York, she said.

The scholarship included a $US25,000 ($NZ37,400) allowance, plus the cost of airfares and health insurance.

She would also attend conferences in Kentucky and Colorado focusing on suicide, she said. Her children, aged 12 and 14, would go to New York with her for the year.

Cornell University would pay for her family's US visas and award her a ''full fees waiver'' worth up to $90,000.

Otago University had awarded her a three-year PhD scholarship.

 

 


Where to get help

Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508-828-865.


 

 

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