Cornish student pioneers new scholarship funding

A student from Cornwall has become the first to benefit from a new travel scholarship funded by a late university lecturer who was also from Cornwall.

Finn Woodrow, from the Rame Peninsula, was awarded the Gavin Pomeroy Travel Scholarship as part of his architecture studies at the University of Plymouth.

The university said Mr Pomeroy, who taught at the establishment for more than 30 years, left £50,000 in his will for a scholarship "to support students looking to supplement their learning".

Mr Woodrow, who travelled to Tbilisi, Georgia, to study how politics influenced the design of houses in the region, said the experience was "empowering".

He said: "As a minimally-travelled person, the chance to experience a new place, especially with developed reasoning behind it, was an amazing experience.

"Tbilisi showed me that cities, like the countryside that I grew up in Cornwall, could also be places of poetic dwelling.

"[It] empowered me to dive deeply into an area of interest that I otherwise would not have had the chance to do; fundamentally changing my understanding of cities and architecture."

The university said the initiative, for second-year students, could be used "for anything related to travel", as per Mr Pomeroy's request when he passed away in 2022.

It said: "His entire teaching career was spent at the University of Plymouth, where he lectured until retiring in 1999.

"He loved the arts as a whole, enjoying sketching, painting, music and poetry.

"A keen traveller himself, Gavin wanted the money to support students' passion for the programme, with up to £1,000 available to apply for each year."

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