BURSARIES
Our bursary support has been transformational for the young people to whom we’ve been able to award it. We would like to continue to offer bursaries support for fees and maintenance to underrepresented communities and prospective students from non-traditional backgrounds, empowering diverse talent in the next generation of built environment professionals. If you are interested in supporting a bursary, please email Head of School, Neal Shasore (neal@the-lsa.org) for further information.
For academic year 2021/22 we received funding from the Stephen Lawrence Day Foundation (SLDF), with support from our Founding Vice-Chair Elsie Owusu OBE and the RIBA. This funding provided two full fees bursaries for black and other underrepresented racialised groups in the architectural profession. It was an honour for the LSA to be the beneficiary of support from the SLDF.
Left to right: Elise Owusu, Neal Shasore and Baroness Doreen Lawrence. Credit: Henry J. Kamara
Our Head of School, Neal Shasore, commented at the time:
‘It is a privilege and an honour to work with Baroness Lawrence and the Stephen Lawrence Day Foundation on their work in this area. With this generous preliminary funding from the RIBA, the LSA is designing an ambitious programme that creates opportunity, enables dialogue and serves as a call to action…we want to use this donation as a springboard for an ambitious programme to tackle enduring systemic barriers to diversity in architecture.’
Baroness Doreen Lawrence said: “I’m delighted to receive this donation to the Stephen Lawrence Day Foundation. I am keen that we support young Black architects to realise Stephen’s dream. This donation will definitely have an impact in creating the legacy of change the new Foundation has been set up to deliver.”
Off the back of this donation, the LSA launched a fundraising campaign for further bursary support – ‘Open Up! New Ways Through Architecture.’ This campaign led to 3 full fees and maintenance bursaries from the Zaha Hadid Foundation aimed at students from low-income backgrounds and refugees who otherwise would not be able to pursue their architectural studies.
Donations of this kind change young peoples’ lives, relieving them of financial strain. We also remain committed to tackling the structural financial and socio-economic barriers to architectural education, namely through our Part 0 programmes and campaign. If you would like to join us in this mission and would like to donate funds for work in this area please contact our Head of School, Neal Shasore (neal@the-lsa.org).