Celebration of achievement and generosity at UNE

May 17, 2007

The Ghana High Commissioner for Australia, His Excellency Mr Kofi Sekyiamah, attended the University of New England's annual Scholarships Presentation Ceremony yesterday to celebrate the success of a Ghanaian student.

Mr Sekyiamah (pictured here, left) joined an audience of about 200 people in UNE's Lazenby Hall to see 160 students presented with scholarships worth a total of more than $4 million.

The Ghanaian student, Quassy Adjapawn (pictured here, right), who is conducting research in UNE's Centre for Peace Studies, received an Australian Postgraduate Award Scholarship. He was one of 61 postgraduate students to be presented with scholarships yesterday in the first UNE ceremony to include postgraduate along with undergraduate scholarships.

Professor Alan Pettigrew, the Vice-Chancellor of UNE, welcomed scholarship donors, students and guests to the ceremony which, he said, celebrated the achievements of students and the generosity of donors.

Professor Pettigrew presented UNE Country Scholarships (worth $5,000 a year for the duration of the degree course) to 14 students. These scholarships, established in 1998, have so far supported more than 200 students at UNE. They are awarded to students from regional and remote areas who have demonstrated outstanding academic achievement, leadership ability, and participation in school and community life. Professor Pettigrew also presented several UNE Armidale District Country Scholarships – established so that the University can recognise outstanding young people from the Armidale community.

Individuals, community organisations, businesses, industry groups, and organisations within UNE itself are among the scholarship sponsors. Individual donors of undergraduate scholarships who attended yesterday's ceremony included Dr Brian Connor, Mr Ces Spence, Emeritus Professor John Roberts, Mr Scott Williams and Mr Richard See. Businesses, industry groups and other organisations represented included Armidale Dumaresq Council, Inland Technology, Tamex Transport, the Australian wool industry, Joblink Plus, the Country Women's Association of NSW, the New England Credit Union, Spotless Services, the Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics, the UNE Alumni Association (Armidale), and Wright College Association.

Mr John Young, brother of the former Immigration Minister Mick Young, attended the ceremony to present several Mick Young Scholarships to Indigenous students.

The postgraduate awards included scholarships funded by the Commonwealth Government, UNE, research organisations, government bodies and industry groups. The newly-established Patricia Vinnicombe Scholarship for Rock Art Studies, funded by Woodside Energy Ltd, went to Kenneth Mulvaney for research on the Aboriginal rock engravings of the Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia.

Heather Brockwell, recipient of a Jim Pollard Prize (sponsored by the UNE Alumni Association, Armidale) and the Richard See Scholarship in Student Leadership, speaking on behalf of the scholarship recipients, thanked all the donors, saying they had enabled many students "to embark on a lifelong journey of education".

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here, showing the Ghana High Commissioner for Australia, His Excellency Mr Kofi Sekyiamah, and postgraduate scholarship recipient Quassy Adjapawn, was taken at yesterday's Scholarships Presentation Ceremony.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at May 17, 2007 03:55 PM