Maisie Edwards is the 2023 Scholarship winner
This year, the Hywel Teifi Edwards Memorial Scholarship will be awarded for the second time, and Academi Hywel Teifi is pleased to announce that the successful candidate is Maisie Edwards, who hails from Newport and is a former pupil of Ysgol Gyfun Gwynllyw.
Maisie has already graduated with a first-class degree in BSc Population Health and Medical Sciences and is about to complete a master's by research course in Medical and Healthcare Studies. She has taken advantage of every opportunity that was available to her to study through the medium of Welsh as a student at Swansea University and to experience extracurricular opportunities and a full social life in the language. These experiences included being a member of Aelwyd yr Elyrch, the GymGym (Welsh Society), being an Ambassador for the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol and having work experience with the Academi.
Maisie is currently working as a Welsh researcher with the Sunproofed project which promotes the importance of protecting children from the sun.
Maisie's research will focus on the use of the Welsh language within primary health care provision and care homes and the impact of this on the patient. Maisie has already done some work on the subject as part of her master's course and the Scholarship will enable her to continue this important research in more depth.
Maisie said, “I am extremely grateful. It is a tremendous privilege and honour to receive the Hywel Teifi Memorial Scholarship. My research explores the importance of the Welsh language in fostering effective communication between care provider and patient and better health outcomes within primary healthcare provision. I am inspired by Professor Hywel Teifi Edwards' unceasing contribution and commitment to the language, learning and culture of Wales and I feel passionately about continuing to promote the Welsh language within my field of research. Swansea University and the Welsh medium community have played a big role in my academic life, and I look forward to representing them with the support and assistance of the Scholarship."
The Hywel Teifi Memorial Scholarship receives a financial contribution from media company Tinopolis Cymru together with supporters and friends of Academi Hywel Teifi, Swansea University, and its aim is to support Welsh-medium postgraduate students who want to study a field related to Hywel Teifi's contribution to Welsh learning and culture.
The judges of this year's scholarship were the presenter Angharad Mair, Sir Roderick Evans, Chair of Academi Hywel Teifi and Professor Gwenno Ffrancon, Director of Academi Hywel Teifi.
Angharad Mair said on behalf of Tinopolis, "It is a privilege for us as a company to be involved in awarding the Hywel Teifi Memorial Scholarship. Professor Hywel Teifi was a great friend of our daily programs for S4C, Heno a Prynhawn Da and a regular contributor and enthusiastic supporter. It's great to see that this year's award is being presented for research work that is so important to so many people in Wales when looking at the Welsh language hand in hand with healthcare. We wish Maisie all the best with the work.”
Professor Gwenno Ffrancon said, "Academi Hywel Teifi is extremely proud to award the 2023 Hywel Teifi Memorial Scholarship to Maisie Edwards who wants to carry out research that can have a far-reaching influence on our use of the Welsh language within health and care settings. Her research will try to highlight the positive effect of using the Welsh language when providing care, and that in the context of basic healthcare, which is through the service of family doctors - the population's main link with healthcare services. It will also assess whether the use, or lack of use, of the Welsh language has an impact on physical and mental health and the ability to remember information of residents in care homes and patients with chronic conditions. We wish her well and I'm sure we'll have a valuable study from her in three years' time."
