The Lisa Wilson Scholarship Fund awards more than 100 bursaries
An article about the charity and Clive’s new book has just been published in the Salisbury Journal.
You can read it here>>
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Lisa Wilson receives honorary degree
The late Lisa Wilson has been awarded the honorary degree of Master of Business Administration by Solent University today (Thursday 11 July): Lisa’s father and mother, Clive and Tricia Wilson, received Lisa’s award.
Grit and determination, just some of Lisa’s amazing qualities, led her to study at Southampton Institute of Higher Education, now Solent University. In 1998, Lisa became the first ever member in her family to go to university. She spent three years at Solent working hard and as her father, Clive says, ‘standing on her own two feet’, which enabled her to graduate with a Second-Class Honours (First Division) in Business Management in 2001.
Her positivity and willingness to succeed, which led to her achievements at Solent, motivated Lisa to live a varied and independent lifestyle outside of university. Aside from her life-long ambition of travelling the world, Lisa loved sport and excelled at many, including golf, which saw her win the Gilbert Trophy at Wellow Golf club in 1997. Lisa was also a football fan through and through, and together with her family, held season tickets at The Dell at St Mary’s for five years. Her support for the Saints was recognised in 2003 when the family had a memorial paver put in place to honour Lisa’s memory.
Following Lisa’s tragic death in November 2002, when she was just 23 years’ old, the Wilson family set up the Lisa Wilson Scholarship Fund in memory of their daughter. Over the last 16 years, Lisa’s fund has enabled young people to access higher education who may not have been able to otherwise. Scholarships of £1,000 per year, for up to three years, have been available to Solent University students who have either overcome adversity or demonstrated the need for additional financial support with their studies.
Since Lisa’s death, an incredible £291,000 has been raised to support the educational needs of Solent students. In fact, almost 100 students have directly benefitted from Lisa’s fund, enabling them to fulfil their ambition to study and attend the same university that Lisa did, 21 years ago. Thanks to the support and dedication from Lisa’s family, her fund has made a major contribution to the development of the university and to the lives of many students.
Commenting on her award, Lisa’s father, Clive, said, “Receiving Lisa’s honorary degree is a huge moment for the Wilson family. I know that Lisa would have been very proud of not only this, but her fund which has allowed so many people to go to university and kickstart their careers.”
(Originally published on the Solent University website. https://www.solent.ac.uk/news/life-at-solent/2019/lisa-wilson-award)
Poppy Ritter receives Lisa Wilson Outstanding Achievement Award
Poppy Ritter receives her Lisa Wilson Outstanding Achievement Award at the Spark Building in Solent University on the day of her graduation, 11th July.
Poppy achieved a BA 2-1 (Hons) in Interior Design Decoration.
Photographs from Lisa’s Dream event
More photos from the evening can be viewed at http://www.kcphoto.co.uk/galleries/celebrating-lisa-at-40/
Username and password is lisa40. Right click to download pictures.
Lisa’s Dream event raises over £11,000
A very emotional 40th birthday party and gala dinner at Solent University raised over £11,000 for charity benefitting the Lisa Wilson Scholarship Fund.
On Friday evening, one hundred and twenty special guests attended the gala dinner in honor of Lisa who would have been 40 years old on March 15th. The guests included Vice Chancellor Graham Baldwin from SolentUniversity, some of Lisa’s school, college and uni friends, plus family members and other special guests. The evening was packed with tributes and video of Lisa on her journey around the world.
A raffle auction and silent auction took place raising in excess of £11,000 for the charity. Many celebrities had donated memorabilia, including honary doctotare from the university Craig David who donated a guitar used on the making of his last album.
There was cabaret from Lucie Campbell who has previously been supported by the charity, plus Martin Murphy and his daughter Danni. Comedian and impressionist Mike Osman hosted the evening and did the second half of the show as ‘The Donald’ Trump, followed by dancing to Abba Rival to round the night off, as Lisa has always been a ‘Dancing Queen.
It was an incredible evening, and wonderful to see so many supporters of the charity.
To date we have raised over £290,000, and some ninety seven students have benefitted from the charity. As every £1000 represents a year in a student’s life, Lisa’s Legacy has now become 290 years of education.