Preliminary applications for the 2012 funding round are open now. Please complete the application form here and submit. Once preliminary applications have been processed we will invite qualifying applicants to complete a full application. Please refer to the Grants to Community page for our funding criteria information.
Deirdre Hauschild
Deirdre Hauschild is an inspiration to anyone who thinks it is too late to go to university and earn a degree.
In 1991, when her daughter was just 3 years old, Deirdre’s husband was involved in a horrific car accident that left him with permanent brain injury, and unable to ever work again. For 17 years she cared for her husband fulltime. Despite not being in a position to further her own education or career, she supported her daughter to enable her to recently graduate with an honours degree in Resource and Environmental Planning, and Deirdre was involved in numerous volunteer roles with local community organisations. These included helping special needs children at school, volunteering at her Church drop-in centre for street people, answering calls on a help-line, and a busy role with The NZ Battle of Crete Association.
Through all those years Deirdre held on to her dream to one day study towards a Bachelor of Social Science degree. In 2007 her husband’s health had deteriorated to the point where Deirdre could no longer care for him by herself. This necessitated selling the family home so that he could receive a higher level of care, but did give Deirdre the opportunity to do something for herself for the first time in 17 years. She enrolled at the Tauranga campus of the University of Waikato, and finally began her degree studies. Her lecturer describes Deirdre:
“Deirdre is an extraordinarily positive and resilient person. She has surmounted every obstacle that she has encountered and, with her special combination of drive, initiative and flair, she achieves very good results. She is now an “A” student.”
Deirdre was awarded the Acorn Foundation Eva Trowbridge scholarship, worth $3000, for 2010. The Acorn Foundation is delighted to be able to assist someone who has so much passion for learning, as well as for her local community. “It is hard to put into words how grateful and appreciative I am to be the recipient of this very generous scholarship. This has enabled me to study two extra papers this year in addition to the two that I had already enrolled for. To be able to have this chance to study at my age is just wonderful, and I will continue to be absolutely 100% committed for the next two years when I will graduate. Being older is not a handicap, in fact it is an advantage because we as adults have so much life experience. We all should take any chance offered to us in life, embrace the opportunity, be committed and positive and use our knowledge to help others. Thank you so much Acorn Foundation for giving me the chance to continue learning.”