Mark Alvares Peres

Community Bursary Award Holder

DPhil Mathematics (2025)

I am incredibly grateful to David Scrymgeour and Career Essentials Inc for supporting me with this Community Bursary. I have been a competitive fencer for around 15 years now, representing Great Britain for several years at European and World events during my teenage years. Since coming to university I stopped competing internationally to focus on my studies, but I found a new type of fulfilment from fencing as part of a British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) team.

I also started volunteering with Glasgow University Fencing Club during my undergraduate years, serving as President and then Men's 1st Captain. I developed a particular interest in events, and I organised an exhibition match and a competition in Glasgow which are both now running annually without my involvement.

Since coming to Oxford I've had the honour of fencing with the Men's Blues team here. We recently concluded a historic season, having made it to the BUCS Championship final for the first time in at least 17 years and beating Cambridge at Varsity. Alongside competing I've still kept organising, leading the successful restart of a competition in Edinburgh this January.

I love competing and organising, but this involves significant costs - lessons with coaches, kit, transport, etc. The Community Bursary will help me meet all these costs and continue enjoying and contributing to this fantastic sport.