Help Midah fulfil her Oxford dream

When, as a child, Midah fell in love with Greek Mythology, none of us had any idea that this fascination would carry her here, to an acceptance onto the MSt in Greek and/or Latin Languages and Literature programme at The University of Oxford. As her parents, we have seen her journey and we are so very proud of her. She has got here, not only through her love of her subject, but through incredible determination and hard work.

Home educated until her teenage years, she didn’t follow the usual educational progression, but once she decided what she wanted to do, she worked out exactly how to achieve it. She was pragmatic in her college choices to gain what she needed for her application for her Undergraduate Degree at The University of Manchester, where she excelled academically and deepened her love of Greek Mythology and Ancient Greece. During this time, on her visits home, it was always so amazing to listen to her talk with ever growing knowledge of a subject which we know so much less about. But even more than that, to see her developing her understanding and convictions around the missing feminine perspective in these ancient myths. Reading her dissertation on the liminality and power of the figure of Persephone was extremely moving, and it is so wonderful to see in our daughter not only an academic scholar but a strong voice who will fearlessly contribute to the growing representation of women in this historically male dominated field.

After graduating with a first class degree, she has been living at home and working whilst saving and continuing to study in her spare time. Then, not fully believing she would get in, but with hope and faith nonetheless, she applied to The University of Oxford to do her Masters Degree. And there was such absolute joy when she got in.

However, then came the very worrying moment when she found out that she hadn’t been awarded the bursary that we all imagined she would. We have been grappling, juggling and calculating to try and work it out ever since, and we are very nearly there. She has her savings and a post grad loan in place, and a weekend job set up to do alongside, but we are still short and time is running out as she is due to start in October. So, with some trepidation but overarching hopefulness, we are reaching out to you all for help with the last bit of funding for her studies at Oxford.

With our heartfelt thanks, Sylwyn and Meynell

Update January 2025

Sending Happy New year wishes to all of you dear people who so generously supported Midah’s first term at Oxford University. Thank you for all your lovely messages asking how she is getting on. We have just had five joyful days of festivities together as a family and it has been so wonderful to all be together and to have little bits of time for conversations about many things, including Midah’s studies. She has had some amazing experiences noteably reading a papyri of Sappho, who she loves, and getting to handle pottery shards from the 6-4th c BCE, as well as picking the brains of the academics in her department as she moves towards submitting her first set of essays. As she begins her new year with her second term, it felt important to thank you everyone again for your care and your kind kind help.

We discovered that we can leave this gofund open and she can draw down the money as it comes in, so we have decided to do this as there are a few people who wanted to donate but were not able to initially and others who asked to make repeat donations, for which, without expectation, we are ever so grateful.

Sylwyn and Meynell