“Exemplary” residents of Hamilton Parish have been given a boost to their further education.

A trio of students were announced yesterday as recipients of scholarships from Hamilton Parish Council for the upcoming academic year.

Malia Bell, Kenyari Ingham and Vincent Darrell qualified for the council grants.

Rent earned from council-owned property, fundraisers and council members fund the annual awards and a grant from Lyceum Trust matches all money raised.

Ms Bell is studying at the University of the West of England and hopes to become an occupational therapist. Ms Ingham is pursuing paediatric nursing, also at UWE.

Mr Darrell, who also received the award last year, is studying business with management and marketing at Solent University in Britain.

The council’s scholarship committee interviewed seven applicants last month.

A spokeswoman said: “The students must meet certain criteria: have a GPA of 2.5 or higher, be residents of the parish and have completed a first year of postsecondary education.

“They must also submit proposals about ways in which to give back to the parish.”

“All the students interviewed were exemplary and the committee had some difficulty in determining the successful applicants.

“Taking into consideration financial need, academic achievement, community service, extracurricular activities, etc, the committee was finally able to select [these three students].

“The committee wishes all the students every success in the upcoming academic year and looks forward to receiving periodic reports during the course of the year.”