As a young teen Kyra Murray thought she’d like to be a forensic scientist.

Now she’s setting her sights on biomedical study with the intention of becoming a pharmacist.

Either way it was always going to be a career within the medical field and the Katikati scholar heads off this month to begin making that a reality, aided by the BOP Education Trust.

Murray, who will be studying at Victoria University, was one of 19 students who last week received a BOP Education Trust science, technology and emerging industries scholarship.

The students, from Western and Eastern BOP coastal colleges, will each receive $6000 distributed over their years of tertiary studies.

Joining Murray on the stage receiving their scholarships in Tauranga were fellow Western BOP recipients: Tilly Thomas (Aquinas College), Emily Gillingham (Bethlehem College), Kimera Talbot-Chinula and Kahutia Tukaki (Mount Maunganui College), Jack Page and Haylee Hextall (Ōtūmoetai College), Hayley Manning and Brooke Barry (Pāpāmoa College), Evan Fryer and Anthony Coe (Tauranga Boys’ College), Jimin Lee and Prachi Patel (Tauranga Girls’ College) and Austen Targett (Te Puke High School).

Murray completed her education last year at Katikati College. She said she felt “complete disbelief” when she heard she was a scholarship winner.

Recipients are selected annually and determined by the individual colleges/high schools.

Murray is the daughter of Brett Murray and the late Billie Murray.

BOP Education Trust chairman Nick Earl said the trust, which has been operating since 1985, was firmly committed to investing in the tertiary education of the Bay’s young people.

Over the years, 428 students have benefited from the trust’s scholarships, with more than $2 million gifted in supportive funding.