About this scholarship

The Ian Thorpe Scholarship supports a student entering Year 11 at a NSW public school who has shown real commitment to their education and to the people around them. It is not an academic prize. Selection panels look for persistence, contribution and potential, and they read every application in the context of the circumstances behind it.

Recipients receive support across both years of senior school, paid to the school and drawn down as costs arise. That structure matters. Families are not asked to find money up front and claim it back later, which is the point at which most support schemes quietly fail the people who need them most.

What recipients tell us

The most common thing we hear is not about the money. It is that somebody outside their family looked at their application and decided they were worth backing. Scholarship recipients finish Year 12 at markedly higher rates than comparable students, and the gap widens in the final two terms when costs peak.

Selection

Applications are reviewed by a panel including a serving public school principal, a former recipient and a Foundation representative. Shortlisted applicants are contacted for a short conversation, held online or by phone. There is no interview panel to travel to and no cost to apply.