AN Alresford student, Isabel Carter, is one of four students from the University of Oxford who have been chosen as the inaugural beneficiaries of the Everest Lewis Golden Foundation, enabling them to undertake a challenging and inspiring expedition to South Greenland later this month.

With a shortfall in funding of £2,800 and the deadline fast approaching, second year Earth Sciences student Isabel submitted an application to the foundation, which was launched earlier this year by Everest Home Improvements, to help aspiring individuals or groups achieve their ambitions.

Thanks to Isabel she and her teammates – three fellow Earth Sciences students – were granted the full £2,800 by the foundation panel. Their expedition, which will begin on June 28 will see them endeavour to create a geological map of Igaliku in South Greenland, and seek to inspire other young scientists.

The four women will spend several weeks working on a geological map of the Igaliku area. While part of the region is classed as a World Heritage Geopark, it has been almost 60 years since the area’s geology was last studied in detail.

They also plan to use the trip to inspire other young people to study Earth Sciences. They are planning a series of workshops in schools and extensive social media activity to draw attention to it as an important and exciting field of science.

Everest received numerous applications for the spring 2018 round of its new foundation, which was launched earlier this year with the aim of providing financial support to help ambitious people fulfil an extraordinary talent or personal challenge.

The judging panel chose to support this particular cause for a number of reasons, including the scale of the team’s ambition.

Isabel said: “I only heard about the foundation because my mum spotted an article it in a newspaper. We’ve applied for a lot of grants so didn’t really expect to be successful and certainly didn’t expect that Everest would agree to give us the full £2,800 we needed.

“The other girls were shocked when I told them and we’re all very grateful to Everest. Earth Sciences is a really exciting, important subject, but lots of people haven’t even heard of it. We hope our trip will help to inspire other people to study Earth Sciences, by showing them just what can be achieved.”

The Lewis Golden Foundation will select at least one candidate to support each quarter. The deadline for the next funding round is August 6 and applications can be made online at www.everest.co.uk/lewis-golden-foundation.