Last week we held our 2021 Scholarship Award Ceremony where students from over 30 schools across the western suburbs were awarded their Western Chances scholarship certificates. These exceptional young people received scholarships for a range of achievements including academic excellence, outstanding leadership, music, artistic and creative expertise, design and community service. Courtney Woodford Engineering Director at event sponsor Transurban, presented the certificates alongside our CEO Zac Lewis.

Some highlights of the night:
• Recipient Julie Alkarra was awarded the Lynne Wannan Prize for general excellence. Julie arrived in Australia in 2016 with basic knowledge of English, and is now studying a Masters in Pharmacy. Lynne Wannan AM was Deputy-Chair and a founding board member of Western Chances, and the prize is sponsored by her family.
• Nominator Brendan Taig from Suzanne Cory High School won the Helen Worladge Award for outstanding nominator. In the last four years, Brendan has submitted more than 70 scholarship applications on behalf of his students, which takes a huge amount of extracurricular time and effort. Brendan’s award was presented by our former-CEO and great friend and supporter Rhyll Dorrington. Helen Worladge OAM was the original Executive Director of Western Chances.

Certificates were also presented to 13 outstanding alumni who are forging their careers and we know they will continue to be active members of the Western Chances community.

Many thanks for our Master of Ceremonies, Alumna Laura Davis, who did wonderful job of keeping the crowd entertained and the night on-track. Also to current scholarship recipient Lucinda Mann who performed a self-choreographed modern dance piece which captivated our audience. A huge thanks to our Event Sponsor Transurban who have been supporting this event for the last five years. Without generous sponsors like Transurban we couldn’t keep helping our incredible young people from the west. And of course, thank you to our recipients and alumni, who lit up the event last week and made it truly memorable. Thanks to all our supporters, nominators and volunteers who helped make the SAC a resounding success. A big shout out to our Alumni Ambassador Julia Truong and the Team at JTPM for executing the best ever hybrid Scholarship Award Ceremony. See you next year!

If you missed the SAC and you want to watch it online, you can watch it below.

Thanks to Transurban for sponsoring the Scholarship Award Ceremony for the fifth consecutive year.