Women’s Leadership Development Scholarships 2020

Asia Rugby and World Rugby are offering the Women’s Leadership Development Scholarships 2020 program with a maximum of 4 scholarships available.

What is the Women’s Leadership Development Scholarship?

According to the application form, “The purpose behind the scholarship programme is to support talented women to further develop their Rugby Leadership potential.”

The scholarships are open to women who:

• Are currently involved in Rugby at a governance level (Board Member) or,
• Are currently involved in Rugby at a senior management level (third tier and above) or,
• Have the potential to be involved in either a senior management level or Union/Region Board
  within 2 years.

The scholarship can be used to support a combination of leadership development opportunities. Some examples provided are

• Formal or informal education
• Conferences,
• Workshops
• Mentoring

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Women’s Leadership Development Scholarships 2020

The value of each scholarship is up to £10,000 and can be used “to cover travel, accommodation, course or conference fees and any other costs associated with the individual scholarship activity plan.”

More can be seen on the Asia Rugby website.

Who has previously been awarded the World Rugby scholarships?

You can read the full list of previous women who have been awarded the scholarships in 2018 and 2019.

In 2018, two Asian recipients were:

• Ada Milby (Philippines): Member of World Rugby Council and the Asia Rugby Executive Committee, Secretary-General of the Philippine Rugby Football Union and former captain of Philippines in sevens and 15s.
• Samantha Feausi (Hong Kong): Head of Women’s Rugby Development for Hong Kong Rugby Union and former Hong Kong captain in sevens and 15s.

2019 Recipients

In 2019, 14 scholarship were awarded and the recipients were (*Selected list)

• Cate Sexton (New Zealand): Head of Women’s Rugby Development at New Zealand Rugby.
• Vela Naucukidi (Fiji): Women’s Development Manager for Fiji Rugby Union, former President of the Fiji Women’s Rugby Union (2007-12) and current Secretary since 2013.
• Jane Schmitt (Australia): Director and board member of Queensland Rugby Union.
• Cybele Druma (Papua New Guinea): Former CEO of Papua New Guinea Rugby Football Union and President of the National Capital District Rugby Union.
• Gemma Fay (Scotland): Head of Girl’s and Women’s Rugby with Scottish Rugby.
• Regina Lunyolo (Uganda): Chairperson of the Uganda Women’s Rugby Advisory Committee and committee member for the Gender Equality and Diversity commission of the Uganda Olympic Committee
• Soledad Galleguillos (Chile): Development Manager of Women’s Rugby and former international player for Chile, coach and educator.

Samantha Feusi and Ada Milby recipients of the inaugural Women’s World Rugby Leadership Scholarships

Some of the previous scholarship winners and examples of academic courses include:

• Ada Milby, Jillion Potter, Vela Naucukidi, Cybele Druma, Lauren Rothwell, María Fernanda
  Vázquez Villatoro, Katharina Kueß have completed or are in the process of completing the
  Women in Leadership Certificate from eCornell University.
• Maha Zaoui has completed the Executive Masters in Sports Organisations Management
  (MEMOS). This is a programme offered in French, Spanish and English that is run in
  partnership between the Olympic Movement and academic institutions.

The closing date to apply is 28 February 2020.

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