Last week, the Tertiary Scholarship Fund (TSF) has once again generously rewarded three deserving students a sum of $10,000 cash scholarships for their extraordinary achievement in academic and community involvement.
Peter Keeran, a law and commerce student from Monash University, impressed the judges with his academic performance and engagement in the community. His hard work and effort paid off when he won the first prize, $5000 to contribute to his future endeavours.
The first runner-up Elizabeth Wallace with Guoshegn Yang Chen (far right) | Photo by: Kero Sun
Elizabeth Wallace, a psychology student and a mother of two, was the runner-up awarded a cash scholarship of $3000. The third prize went to Tze Yan (Dorothy) Mak from Monash University, a hardworking student dedicated to helping the community, with a $2000 reward.
Dr. Bob Gao opens the award night | Image by: Kero Sun
Peter, the star of the night felt “surprised” that he was awarded the scholarship. He had just arrived home after his three-month India immersive study trip and expressed his gratitude during the speech.
“I am truly humbled by all these experiences and everybody here tonight is deserving of everything that they have achieved,” he said.
Peter won the panellists favour with his impressive GPA results and his strong support of social issues. As an executive of the Monash Ultimate Frisbee Club, he encourages and motivates more students to get involved in physical activities to reduce their mental stress.
Coming from a family of ten children, Peter is also an active advocate for the prevention of family violence, and a champion of humans rights.
“We need people like Peter,” Monash Professor Helena Parkington, one of the panellists of the scholarship, passionately stated. She highly praised Peter’s achievements during the presentation speech.
“The scholarship will help him take on internships, broaden his experience to improve his leadership skills. Because I will be very surprised if he does not become a leader in the Asian Pacific region in law and commence.”
Ji Song, co-winner of last year’s award attended the event as a guest speaker and showed his gratitude to the committee for making the excellent use of the scholarship.
“The scholarship has been beneficial to me. I am a psychology student at Melbourne University, with the $5000, I managed to attend many workshops to add more value to my study. And I plan to supplement my education in the next two years by using the money,” he said.
Emeritus Professor Kwong Lee-Dow AO during his speech | Photo by: Kero Sun
The TSF was founded in 2005 and been presenting scholarships and awards since. Nine students shined their way out of the total 200 candidates this year, with three Excellence Award, two Encouragement Award, two Community Award, and two International Student Award winners.
Vivian Lam, the daughter of the primary founders, said the awards aim to encourage young people to involve themselves into social events and eventually help make a more diverse community.
“We are very proud of this foundation, proud of its 13-year’s history, proud of its born in Melbourne, a city of global learning, multiculturalism, and diversity,” she stated.
Emeritus Professor Kwong Lee-Dow AO, Head of the TSF judging committee said the award is a representation of an inclusive nature led by Mr. Lam comparing to other educational institutions.
“This scholarship is available for the students from all of the Victorian universities and tertiary institution who are doing higher education,” he said.
Apart from the candidate’s academic skill, TSF encourages students to build up a sense of social responsibility and integrity beyond the fulfilment of getting a well-paid job.
Professor Kwong Lee-Dow said passionately in the end.
“You are not only preparing for the next couple of years ahead, and you are preparing yourselves mentally for a long time where a more integrated thinking, professional knowledge skill and the discipline of understanding are needed to make you a valued human being that people want to be associated within the world. That is what the scholarship all about,” he encourages passionately.
The Winners of 2018:
Excellence Award:
Peter Keeran, Monash University
Elizabeth Wallace, University of Melbourne
Tze Yan (Dorothy) Mak, Monash University
Encouragement Awards:
Emanuel Young Zhuang, JMC Academy
Viknesh Kumar, Melbourne University
Community Award:
Dilip Kumar Kandukuri, RMIT University
Cyrus Ho, Melbourne University
International Student Award:
Cindy Zhang, Deakin University
Edel Wan, La Trobe University