At Brisbane Girls Grammar School, we remain proud of our thriving culture of ‘giving back’ and the School’s important role in empowering girls and young women to contribute to our collective future.
Girls Grammar has a long tradition of educating girls from diverse backgrounds and is committed to establishing and maintaining a sustainable bursary program.
The School’s Maria Sulima Bursary, awarded in honour of Dr Maria Sulima, was first awarded in 1995.
The Bursary reflects Dr Sulima’s belief that women should have the opportunity to benefit from an excellent education.
Born in 1911 in Galicia, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Dr Sulima arrived in Brisbane in 1949. Having attained a Doctorate in Law and Economics from Florence University, Maria established a thriving business in Brisbane as a real estate agent and operated a translation service and migration agency.
Education and academic achievement were important in her life and in 1992, the year prior to her death, Dr Maria Sulima chose Girls Grammar as the vehicle to fulfil her dream of providing an exceptional education to young women.
In 1993, funds were bequeathed to the School to provide the Maria Sulima Bursary, with the first bursaries awarded two years later.
With the ongoing generosity of the Girls Grammar community, the School continues to offer the Maria Sulima Bursary to a girl whose character, talent, academic ability and intelligence suggests that she will take full advantage of the opportunities a Girls Grammar education offers.
The 2011 Maria Sulima Bursary recipient, Shiye Su (2015), showed exceptional promise when she started at Girls Grammar. The Bursary enabled Shiye to complete her secondary schooling at Girls Grammar, where she was awarded numerous prizes including the Lady Lilley Silver Medal for Proxime Accessit to the Dux of the School. Shiye is now finishing an undergraduate physics degree at Princeton University in the USA.
‘At Girls Grammar, I was part of a vibrant community with diverse interests. The School fosters a well-rounded, civically-conscious idea of excellence and I was fortunate to have many teachers who were invested in my learning. It is thanks to the generosity of others that I am a Grammar girl.’
Applications for the means-tested Maria Sulima Bursary, for a girl commencing in Year 7 2021, are now open and will close on Friday 28 February 2020.
For further information, including eligibility criteria, please visit the Bursaries page on the School’s website.
