A 22-year-old national surf lifesaving champion has been named as the inaugural recipient of a $10,000 scholarship from the Knights-Wests group and women's sporting network Miverna.
University of Newcastle student Jemma Smith has been awarded the Newcastle Knights Minerva Scholarship to help her complete her 2021 studies while continuing to meet her training commitments.
Ms Smith will receive her scholarship on Thursday from Newcastle Knights CEO Philip Gardner and Minerva Network chairman Christine McLoughlin at McDonald Jones Stadium.
Ms Smith hails from the Central Coast where she started competing as a 5-year-old Nipper with Umina SLSC. She is now a 16-time Australian champion across lifesaving and surf events and has her eye firmly on the 2024 Paris Olympics as a sprint kayaker. She's also about to compete in the NSW Surf Lifesaving Championships in Lake Macquarie.
Ms Smith had originally applied for a Minerva scholarship at the end of last year but was unsuccessful. However about a month ago, she received a call that this opportunity had come up.
"I was so surprised initially because I didn't think it even existed," she said.
"It's great that they're supporting all sporting domains. Surf lifesaving is not a mainstream support, so it's great they're getting behind women's sport and all sporting domains."
Ms Smith is in her fourth year of a Bachelor of Education, and said the scholarship would be a huge boost considering the demands of her sport.
"I'll be able to pay that straight off my degree," she said. "It will be really great to have that financial support because I'm an elite athlete, so I don't get the opportunity to work that much. With my sport it is very demanding, I'm training two to three times every day, swimming, board paddling, ski paddling and running. There are a lot of different things we've got to juggle, but I really enjoy doing it and I'm really passionate about it.
"It is very hectic. A lot of the time I'll be getting up to go swimming at 4am, then doing university classes, then straight back down the afternoon and training in the afternoons and I juggle that around competing as well. But I really enjoy it and I wouldn't have it any other way."
