Four students from QUT have been selected for the Australian Government’s prestigious New Colombo Plan student exchange scholarships.
The highly competitive scholarships, worth up to $67,000, allow successful students to study overseas for at least a semester at universities in the Indo-Pacific region.
Students are chosen based on high achievement, demonstrated leadership in the community and their commitment to strengthen and immerse themselves in the local culture.
QUT Bachelor of Laws student Kate Donnelly, from Brisbane suburb The Gap, will study environmental law at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji.
From there, she hopes to undertake an internship at the Office of the Attorney-General in Kiribati.
“Watching a documentary during high school regarding the sea levels in the Kiribati Islands showed me a very different way of looking at the world,” the fourth-year law student said.
“There is so much I don’t know and I want to find out more.”
QUT Faculty of Education's third-year early childhood student Fiona Bergstrum, from Clayfield, will begin her exchange semester at Taylor’s University in Malaysia, where she will work toward securing an internship at the MAZ International School which will enable her to experience first-hand life in a cross-cultural classroom.
IT and business double degree student Emily Entwistle never knew she had a talent for computer science while growing up in Alstonville, northern New South Wales, and knew it was a gamble to study the field at university.
“I now teach coding to children after school and love the problem-solving aspect of IT,” said the 19-year-old, who will study at the prestigious Korea Advanced Institute for Science and Technology (KAIST) in Daejeon, Korea.
“I’m a strong advocate for getting more women into IT and I’m looking forward to developing an international network of new friends and mentors.”
First-year international business student Matthew Page said he was proud to be awarded the scholarship to study for one year at Taylor’s University in Malaysia.
“Having spent eight years in Bali and learning Indonesian, I look forward to the challenge of learning a new language and working in a different cultural environment,” he said.
QUT’s students will be among 100 scholars from across Australia to study in the Indo-Pacific region.
Each student was recognised at an awards dinner in Canberra on November 30, which was attended by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, the Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove and QUT Director of Global Ian McFadden.
Media contact: Debra Nowland, media@qut.edu.au
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