New initiative launched to give Derry young people from low income families chance to study in US

A new initiative is to be launched to give young people from Derry families with low incomes a chance to study in the US.

Derry has been chosen to the pilot area for the initiative and up to six young people from the city could be heading to ‘elite’ US universities in the near future.

The young people will be drawn equally from Catholic and Protestant communities.

They will have their university fees paid and the cost of the project has been estimated at £65,000 over the four-year period of study for the successful students.

If successful in Derry, the project will be developed in other parts of Northern Ireland.

Representatives from Yale University in Connecticut will visit Derry schools next week to speak about the project.

They will speak to students at Derry’s nine secondary schools and also host an event in the Guildhall to outline more about the project to local parents.

A spokesperson for the organisers of the project said it was being created to enable local students to received financial support to study at the top universities in the US.

“Students from financially disadvantaged families could apply for a merit-based scholarship through the cross-community scheme that we propose,” the spokesperson said.

“The initiative would begin with a pilot scheme in the city of Derry, with a merit-based scholarship to Yale University that may be awarded to four to six students evenly across community backgrounds.

“A simultaneous effort will be made to bring undergraduate students from Yale University to study in Derry, likely in one or more summer study programs.

“Our intention is to then broaden the cross-community scheme to include financially underprivileged students across Northern Ireland, with merit-based scholarships available to multiple, elite universities in the United States. The pilot and broader scheme will be managed through the organization Cooperation Ireland.”

The spokesperson explained why they have chosen Derry to be the pilot area for the project.

“Derry – and the Northwest of Northern Ireland in general – has long faced the highest rates of unemployment in all of Northern Ireland, arguably the poorest infrastructure, and a serious problem of continued violent activity by dissident Republicans as well as loyalists.

“Multiple, recent surveys of young people in Derry have revealed two related and notable trends: teenagers and young adults either must leave Derry or plan to leave because of a lack of employment and educational opportunities.

“At the same time, students in Derry excel in their pre-university studies, in both absolute and relative terms.

“For instance, almost two-thirds of school leavers in 2014-15 in the Londonderry/Strabane Council area had taken and scored between an E and A* on two or more A Levels.

“We suggest that, given the relative economic and institutional deprivation that students in Derry struggle to manage and clearly do overcome in perhaps surprising numbers, the pilot phase of the scheme would be best carried out in this location.”

An information evening about the project will be held in the Guildhall on Tuesday, May 9, at 7pm.