Thursday 14 November 2024
Mr. Adrian Campbell
Youth Services Director,
Rotary Club of Camberwell
Dear Adrian,
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support of our recent event, on November 6. We were delighted to see you there, with Michael Blood.
On behalf of the Education CHANCES Foundation, I wanted to express my gratitude and provide an update to you and the members of the Rotary Club of Camberwell regarding where and how your generous donation of our organisation in late 2023 has made an impact.
Your donation has directly contributed to our scholarship program and directly impacted the lives of young people in Boroondara. Your generous donation of $10,000 funded nine scholarships in 2024. Each scholarship recipient nominates how their funds will be allocated alongside their school-based nominator at the time of application and, in response to their greatest needs to support their schooling and academic journey.
In 2024, the greatest need for our scholarship recipients has been laptops to complete and engage with their schooling and allow them access to their schoolwork to complete homework and assignments and prepare for assessments, particularly as they embark on senior secondary schooling. In addition to this, there has been a high demand amongst our scholarship recipients for uniforms, for school, for sporting endeavours with school and several examples of students pursuing early access to a school-based traineeship, where the right uniform is essential to pursue their pathway.
A powerful example of a student who has been supported through your generous donation by way of an Education CHANCES scholarship, has been a student in Year 12 at one of our partnering schools. This student completed several Year 12 subjects in 2023, whilst in Year 11, and obtained an ATAR in the high 90s.
The student completed additional Year 12 subjects in 2024 to better their ATAR and support them to achieve their dreams of studying Medicine at Melbourne University. This student works hard to support their family on a daily basis whilst also dedicating significant time to their studies. They are the primary carer for more than one family member and work to support the family outside of school hours. This student also believes strongly in the power of giving back and volunteers in local community outreach programs on the weekend and in the school holidays.
In my recent conversations with this student, they expressed an absolute gratitude for the opportunities they have been afforded through their scholarship with Education CHANCES and recognise that they wouldn’t have been able to pursue their education in the same manner without it. This young person is a shining example of the power of the work that we do in Boroondara. Providing opportunities for access and pursuing pathways which may otherwise be unattainable.
We are incredibly proud of the work that we do to support young people in Boroondara to continue to experience success in their schooling. The work of Education CHANCES supports our scholarship recipients with the financial demands of schooling and nurtures their emotional wellbeing by providing them a vote of confidence that their academic efforts have been recognised, encouraged and celebrated.
Thank you and all the members of the Rotary Club of Camberwell again for choosing to support our students in our pursuit of a brighter future through education.
With sincere gratitude,
Nikko Riazi
Chair