Lois wins prestigious Saltire Scholarship to California
An Arran student has won a prestigious Saltire Scholarship and is presently gaining invaluable work experience the United States.
Former Arran High pupil Lois Crawford, from Blackwaterfoot, has just turned 21 and is studying marketing and human resource management at Strathclyde University, and is interning with the Silicon Valley Bank in Santa Clara, California.
Entrepreneurial Scotland’s Saltire Scholarship programme places high potential undergraduates in their penultimate year of study from universities across Scotland on paid summer internships with leading organisations around the world. Saltire Scholarships are fully funded through supporters and donors of the Saltire Foundation, a registered Scottish charity which is operated by Entrepreneurial Scotland and exists to find, fuel and spark Scotland’s next generation of business leaders.
The Saltire Foundation was founded in 2007 by Global Scotland, the charitable arm of Entrepreneurial Scotland. The Saltire Scholarship programme has grown from six scholars in 2007 to 143 scholars in 2016 – the largest ever cohort.
Saltire scholar Lois said: ‘My Saltire internship is with Silicon Valley Bank in the US, bringing me to the technology capital of the world. It has been such an amazing and rewarding experience. It’s the kindness of Jean which has helped my and other scholars’ internships to become a reality. I have learned so much in my short time here already and can’t wait to see what the rest of the experience brings.’
Jean Young continues to support Scotland’s next generation of business leaders by funding four Saltire Scholarships taking place this summer. Born in Orkney as Jean Clair Drever, Ms Young now lives in Dallas, Texas, but returns to Orkney every year during the summer months. Ms Young first be- came a Saltire Foundation donor in 2012 and has now funded a total of nine Saltire Scholarships.
Ms Young said: ‘My scholars have changed my life and I am very proud of them. Their academic achievements are outstanding and I know their Saltire internships will give them the necessary experience to go on and become leaders in their chosen fields.
‘It’s the most rewarding thing I have ever done and I get to fulfil my grandmother’s wish of giving back to the Highlands and Islands.’