Bermuda Commercial Bank has announced the award of three scholarships to exemplary students in the community.This year, one of the scholarships was open for all ages to apply as the bank said it felt that individuals of all ages may wish to pursue academic excellence.Eden Smith, Christopher Michael Phillips, and Juliette Carol Swan were presented their scholarships this week by director and chief operating officer Horst Finkbeiner.Ms Smith, who graduated from The Berkeley Institute in 2011 and started at Bermuda College in the same year, was awarded the Gold Level Scholarship at $5,000. Mr Phillips, who also started at Bermuda College in 2011, was awarded the bank’s Silver Level Scholarship at $2,500.Ms Swan was awarded the bank’s second Silver Level Scholarship at $2500 as part of their scholarship for working adults. She earned her Associate’s Degree in Business Administration from Bermuda College in 2012 and has now been accepted to the Bachelors in Business programme at Mount Saint Vincent University which is affiliated with Bermuda College.One of the requirements of the scholarships was that each student takes the pledge to ‘Pay It Forward’ within the community by identifying a general or specific plan to volunteer at a local charity or to serve as an academic tutor.A minimum of 14 hours or one hour per week is required and students are required to register with Volunteer Action (a registered student organisation at Bermuda College) in order to track their time.Horst Finkbeiner stated: “It was vital that our scholarship offer something more than just dollars. We want students in the community to truly understand the value of ‘paying it forward’ and giving back to Bermuda. We wish these individuals the best of luck in this academic year and hope that we have helped them in their journey towards achieving success!”