Katie gets a uni boost

ALSTONVILLE'S Katie Croaker will be able to head off to uni next year with a little less concern about how to pay for expensive textbooks.

Katie, who this year graduated from Alstonville High School, was last week awarded a Ballina Country Women's Association scholarship worth $800.

The CWA scholarship program began as a bicentennial project back in 1988, and the Ballina branch has given out money to a local high school student heading off to tertiary studies every year since.

Katie wasn't in town to receive the scholarship, and her mum, Judy, picked it up on her behalf.

Katie was in Bali on an end-of-year holiday, visiting a family known to her.

And that overseas experience will also be of benefit to Katie, who hopes to get into a degree in international and global studies at the University of Sydney next year.

Many parents of university students will understand Katie's mum Judy's reaction to her daughter receiving a bit of cash before leaving home.

"It's very handy," she said.