A group of former Berkeley Institute students decided to celebrate the anniversary of their graduation by giving back to their alma mater.

More than 40 graduates from the Class of ’84 raised $12,000 to donate to two deserving students from this year’s graduating class.

The funds were awarded to Seer Carey and Kenya Smith-Woodley, and will be used to pay for their further education.

Seer wants to study design and technology while Kenya is pursuing studies in the visual and creative arts.

Selena Simons, who helped to organise the fundraiser, said that many of the Class of ’84 remained in contact with one another.

The group had planned to hold a party to mark their 40th anniversary, but when those plans never materialised, members decided to raise funds instead.

Ms Simons said: “A bunch of us maintain connections via an active WhatsApp chat group and although we could not get ourselves united and organised to pull off a fancy celebratory reunion party, the one thing that we focused on was establishing a bursary for a graduating student from the Class of 2024.

“Our initial conversations had us set a fundraising goal of $8,000, but we raised way more than that and reached a target of $12,000.

“We are exceptionally proud of this endeavour.”

Ms Simons said it was decided to donate the funds to arts students because the Class of ’84 had a number of graduates who went on to excel in the arts.

She said: “Our class, the Class of 1984, has a host of wonderfully talented people across a variety of fields, but we wanted to award someone pursuing the arts.”

Seer and Kenya received their awards at The Berkeley Institute's recently held scholarships and awards ceremony.