The John Burns Award for Courage and Perseverance

The John Burns Award for Courage and Perseverance is granted to tertiary students living in the Wellington region who have exhibited outstanding qualities of courage and perseverance in the face of adversity, including health, disability and family circumstances. This Award is a memorial to John Burns, a Naval Officer who died in 1967 after suffering many years of ill health. The award was established by Patricia Burns, John's sister, after her death to ensure John's memory would live on and to demonstrate that success could still be achieved despite adversity. The award is administered by Public Trust, and recipients are chosen by an Advisory Committee comprising Public Trust and the Royal New Zealand Navy. It is granted biennially to students under age 23 who are studying full-time in New Zealand for their first tertiary qualification and are in need of financial assistance.