two of its scholarships in an effort to encourage additional applications.

The bank has received few applications for the two scholarships and one of the reasons might be that students think they have to be studying a subject specific to banking, but that is not necessarily the case, stressed Bank of Bermuda chief administration officer Philip Butterfield.

The two scholarships are the Centennial Trust Banking Scholarship, which has been renamed the Centennial Trust Services Scholarship, and the Information Technology Scholarship.

He said: "We are not sure, but we suspect that the lack of applicants...

may be because there is a tendency to think of Bank of Bermuda as just a bank, and that to qualify for the scholarship one had to be taking a very specific course of study.

"However, the businesses of the bank are varied. We are in the business of financial services and we have a need for people with a fairly broad background for study.'' "We'd like to encourage people studying in the fields of accounting, business administration, commerce, economics, finance, investments and law to apply for the Centennial Trust Banking scholarship,'' he continued.

"However, we recognise that there may be students studying in other areas that have a keen interest in joining the bank after graduation and using their university education as a foundation to build their general knowledge, and therefore their interest will be taken into consideration.'' Bank human resources senior vice president Mark Perreault, who sits on the scholarship committee, noted: "In addition, we're always looking for qualified Bermudians in the field of information technology, which is why we introduced this scholarship.

"Preference will be given to graduates of Bermuda College, but we are now opening this scholarship to information technology students at other institutions. We would really like more students to apply for this award.'' Mr. Butterfield said other reasons behind the small number of applications could be that the Centennial Trust Financial Services Scholarship was new and not listed in the scholarship directory, distributed to students.

The Centennial Trust Financial Services Scholarship is awarded annually to a student who is studying financial services-related subjects at the undergraduate level on a full-time basis.

Preference will be given to graduates of Bermuda College once a candidate has satisfied all other criteria.

The award is valued at $30,000 over the third and fourth year of a student's degree programme.

Bank of Bermuda Information Technology Scholarship awards provide financial support to students who undertake undergraduate information technology related studies on a full time basis.

The grants are valued at $2,000 per annum for the first two years and $10,000 per annum for the third and fourth years of a student's degree programme.

Recipients are committed to a cooperative working arrangement with the bank during their summer and Christmas breaks.

They must also be willing to render services to the bank for a period equivalent to the length of the scholarship.

For both scholarships, the selection committee will pay special regard to evidence of outstanding scholastic ability, qualities of character, leadership, responsibility, community involvement and dedication to achievement, athletic, cultural and other non-academic pursuits, and financial need.

Mr. Butterfield and Mr. Perreault called on members of the community to flood them with applications and noted that a scholarship was an award to recognise accomplishment and encourage people going forward.

It was not simply a monetary gift.

Students who are interested in applying for either of these scholarships can collect an application form from Bank of Bermuda's Human Resources Department, on the third floor of the Compass Point building on Bermudiana Road, or the EasyLink Banking Centres or by applying on-line at www.bankofbermuda.com.