Tag: Captain Tasos Politis Scholarship

Opening Doors: Scholarship Opportunities at City St George’s Short Courses

December 23, 2025 / / 0 Comments

In the season of giving, we’re delighted to share the range of scholarship opportunities across our City St George’s Short Courses programme – initiatives that embody the university’s commitment to diversity, inclusion, and widening participation.

What’s Available

We’re offering several scholarships for our upcoming courses:

Why This Matters

Jem Bartholomew, who teaches the Fact-based Storytelling course and is a freelance writer for the Guardian, emphasised the vital importance of these opportunities:

“The publishing and media industries have a massive hill to climb when it comes to increasing diversity efforts. The Sutton Trust found, for instance, that despite only 7% of people in the UK attending fee-paying private schools, this cohort made up 30% of all journalists, and 50% of newspaper columnists.

The short course scholarships at City St George’s are a small but vital way we can try to boost access to publishing and the media — by developing people’s writing skills, demystifying the industry, and elevating new voices previously locked out the creative fields.”

More Than Just Courses

These aren’t simply writing classes – they’re pathways to discovering and developing your unique voice, regardless of your background or circumstances. Each course offers expert tuition, practical skills development, and the chance to connect with a community of fellow writers who share your passion for storytelling.

Whether you’re interested in writing that creates social change, learning how to craft compelling fact-based narratives, or developing your novel through the Novel Studio, there’s an opportunity here for you.

Who Can Apply

The scholarships for Jem’s Fact-based Storytelling and Ciaran Thapar’s Writing for Social Impact courses are both open to young adults aged 18-25 from underrepresented backgrounds and/or facing financial difficulty. The Captain Tasos Politis Scholarship is for talented writers from low-income households. Each scholarship has its own specific criteria, so we encourage you to visit the individual course pages to find out more about eligibility and how to apply.

The next deadline to apply for our Fact-Based Storytelling scholarship is midnight on 7 January 2026.

The deadline to apply for our next Writing for Social Impact Scholarship is 6 January 2026

The deadline for our Captain Tasos Politis Scholarship application is 9 June 2026.

Taking the Next Step

If you’ve been thinking about taking your writing further but worried about the cost, these scholarships could be your opportunity.  Find out more about the scholarships and how to apply on the City St George’s Short Courses website.

You can also sign up to our free online taster evening happening on January 8 where you’ll get a chance to sample our courses and speak to our friendly team. Register here.

 

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Spotlight on our 2025 Novel Studio Scholarship Winner!

November 20, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Scholarship winner Michelle Celestine

We’re thrilled to celebrate one of this year’s Captain Tasos Politis Scholarship recipients, Michelle Celestine. Michelle currently works as a Food and Textiles Technician at a UK secondary school and initially applied for the scholarship with very low expectations. ‘Not for a second did I think someone would believe in my writing,’ she says. ‘So, to have even made it to the interview stage was a massive boost to my confidence.’

But her talent spoke for itself, ultimately earning her the full scholarship.

The moment she received the news, Michelle recalls she accepted immediately — and then burst into tears. ‘I was so proud of making them proud I cannot tell you,’ she says of telling her children, who celebrated alongside her.

Her response captures something important about the creative journey: how transformative it can be when someone sees potential in your work. ‘Having someone believe in you can have such an enormous impact in how you view your future and the many possibilities that await you. I am so grateful to Emily and Rebekah who interviewed me, for deciding I was a good candidate to put forward for the scholarship; you both have no idea how much this means to me.’

Now, she’s already thinking about paying it forward. Once she’s financially stable, she plans to sponsor another writer on the Novel Studio course ‘as a way of passing on the gratitude.’

Generously funded by City St George’s Alumni Ambassador George Politis, and named after his father, the aim of the scholarship is to support a student of talent and potential who might not otherwise be able to accept an offer of a place on The Novel Studio. We are hugely grateful to George for his generosity and ongoing support for the course and the future literary landscape.

Applications for next year’s scholarship will open in February 2026. Find out more about eligibility and how to apply here.

Celebrating Literary Dreams: The Captain Tasos Politis Scholarship Empowers Aspiring Novelist

September 3, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Scholarship Winner Merveille Faila

We are thrilled to announce that Merveille Faila will be 2024’s recipient of the Captain Tasos Politis Scholarship. This generous scholarship, supported by City Alumni Ambassador George Politis, provides a fully funded place on our prestigious year-long Novel Studio programme, aiming to provide opportunities for talented, aspiring novelists from low-income households.

The Novel Studio offers a structured and supportive environment for writers to learn about the craft of novel writing and to develop their own novels over the course of a year.  The course has built a reputation for spotting and nurturing emerging novelists and has a very strong track record of published alumni. Through the Captain Tasos Politis Scholarship, we are able to open doors for talented individuals who might otherwise face financial barriers to pursuing their writing ambitions.

This year’s scholarship recipient, Merveille Faila, has said:

“It is a great honour to be the recipient of the Captain Tasos Politis Scholarship. As someone aspiring to develop my voice as an emerging writer, the scholarship provides the resources to do so in a structured and supportive environment. I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to gain greater exposure to the literary world, and to learn and grow in my experience of crafting a novel.”

This sentiment embodies the very essence of what the scholarship and the Novel Studio programme aim to achieve – fostering new voices, building confidence, and providing the tools and connections necessary for success in the literary world.

George Politis has said:

“It is such a great honour to support literature and talent.  I try to follow in my dad’s footsteps, always curious.  That’s why we launched the FinTech. Lab at Bayes, all about innovations and technology.  Progress requires creativity and imagination.  The Novel Studio is all about that, training our future inspiring novelists. Congratulations to Merveille, eager to hear your voice!”

We are hugely grateful to George Politis for his visionary support. By funding this scholarship in honour of his late father, Captain Tasos Politis, George is investing in the future of literature.

The Captain Tasos Politis Scholarship also represents City’s commitment to diversity in literature and our belief in the power of storytelling to shape our understanding of the world. We look forward to being part of Merveille’s writing journey as she embarks on her Novel Studio year.

For anyone interested in City’s writing short courses, join us for our online open evening on Wednesday September 11 where you will have a chance to try one of our free taster sessions. Full details avaiable here.

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