NEW DELHI: Aiswarya Aanand, Riya Sharma, Girish Gupta and Damini Jai Singh were announced as the winners of the Deakin & Times Now present Deakin Vice Chancellor’s Meritorious Scholarship 2019.
Applications were received from many cities across India, with the culmination round being telecast on the English news channel.
The announcement is part of the association between Deakin University and Times Now towards an initiative of ‘Changing Lives’ with the objective of rewarding bright minds with 100% tuition fee waiver scholarships for on-shore studies in areas in Sports, STEM, Arts and one for any other area at Deakin University.
The scholarship in each of these individual study areas were offered in recognition by an industry partner – Rajasthan Royals for sport and BIOCON for STEM.
The students undertook a selection process including interviews and group discussions. The four scholarship winners were chosen by the panel of judges which included John Gloster (head physio Rajasthan Royals), Amitava Saha (president & head of HR, BIOCON) and Ms Ravneet Pawha (dy VP – Global Engagement, Deakin University).
The four winners have now joined the elite group of 19 scholars who have been earlier awarded the Vice Chancellor’s Meritorious Scholarships since 2014.
Aiswarya Aanand, the winner of the sports scholarship, is an avid sportsperson and has represented her state U-19 cricket team and captained the volleyball team at IIT Madras at the prestigious Inter-IIT tournament. She is keen to use this opportunity to enhance her knowledge and skills to work on performativity and resistance among sportswomen back in her state.
Damini Jai Singh, a national-level shooter, won the scholarship for Arts and she has chosen Psychology as her study area at Deakin University. She wishes to specialize in Sport Psychology and explore the ways in which it can be used to make a difference in the lives of sportspersons in India. Being in the sports circle, she has experienced the need for Psychology in Sport and is confident of making an impact both in behaviour and performance of sportspersons.
The Deakin Vice Chancellor’s Meritorious Scholarships is offered in India since 2014 and so far, 23 scholars including this year’s 4 winners have been awarded this prestigious scholarship in various areas of study for both undergraduate and postgraduate programs at Deakin University in Australia.
