Brookside splashes Sh35m scholarships

Brookside Marketing Manager Peter Wesonga, left, present a dummy cheque worth Shs35Million to Strathmore's Dean of Students Paul Ochieng and Education Sports representative Benson Ikyungu, right. They are flanked by Strathmore University Boys and Girls Basketball teams during the launch of University Sports Schorlarship in Collaboration with Strathmore Univesity at the Institution on Monday, April 13th, 2015. PHOTO/ JONAH ONYANGO.

Six East African secondary school students will for the next five years benefit from a university sports scholarship. This was revealed as Brookside Dairies released a Sh35million cheque to Strathmore University yesterday. 

The scholarships will see 30 students join the university in a period of five years. The first beneficiaries of this initiative will join Strathmore University to study for a Bachelor of Commerce degree in 2016. However, the students will have to excel on the pitch and in class in order to secure the opportunity.

Basketball will have the lion’s share of the scholarships as it will have four students (two boys and two girls) while hockey will have two players (a boy and a girl). To qualify, they will have to meet all the requirements which include excelling in the Brookside-sponsored Kenya Secondary Schools Sports Association national term one games that begin today in Nakuru.

They are also required to participate in the Brookside East Africa School games set for August in Rwanda. In matters academic, they are required to secure a mean grade of A- in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination or an equivalent for the East Africa countries. The selected students will then attend a boot camp in December where they will be graded awaiting their academic results.

While at the university, selected students will pursue their degree while playing for the university’s basketball and hockey teams. Under the scholarship, Brookside and Strathmore will each pay 40 per cent of the fees while the students’ parents will pay the remaining 20 per cent.