TORI Ball is thrilled to be heading to the United Kingdom after having gained a prestigious $30,000 Rotary Foundation Global Scholarship Grant.

Tori, who went to school locally and is the youngest child of Dr Katrina Rainsford, went through the process and received the scholarship.

Rotary Hamilton youth director, Leo Cummins said he didn’t know about the global scholarship provided by Rotary international until Tori first approached him on the matter.

“We got together to figure out how it all works,” he said.

“We had some meetings…interviews and in the end, Tori got a scholarship.”

Currently a tutor at Melbourne University, Tori has completed a Bachelor of Arts with honours in Anthropology and will now be hopping over the Masters thesis to begin a PhD in Anthropology at Durham University.

 “I’ve visited the UK on a number of occasions...I have also studied there during my undergrad studies on exchange in Germany at Humboldt University, so I’ve spent some time in Europe and the vicinity of the UK, but this will be my first time living there which is exciting,” the high-achieving Anthropologist said.

Tori's PhD Anthropology thesis will be looking into climate change, climate adaptation at a community level and how farmers are thinking about the future.

“It’s a real opportunity to connect with experts in the field of anthropology in the UK and generally internationally, which is why it’s so amazing that Rotary have a global grant specifically to go study oversees,” Tori said.

“I think that it will really contribute to the kind of tools and skills that I can then bring back to working in Australia.”

The scholarship awardee also expressed excitement and nerves in making the big move to Northern England but added, “A really nice aspect of the Rotary grant is that I’ll be connected with the Rotary club in Durham.

“Being able to connect with local community there and seeing what people are doing about land management and environmental care in the UK will be really interesting,” Tori said.

 “I’m really grateful to Rotary Hamilton for going on this adventure with me…It’s really nice because I think I really learned my care for land management and community driven environmental projects in Hamilton, so it feels really fitting to be sponsored by Rotary Hamilton.”

Mr Cummins said that Rotary Hamilton were very excited to be having Tori as their guest speaker recently.

“We’re very pleased to be involved in this!” he added.