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Mixed emotions at USC awards presentation
Emotions are likely to run high at the University of the Sunshine Coast’s Semester 2 Scholarships, Bursaries and Prizes Presentation Ceremony tomorrow morning (Friday 10 September).
There will be the obvious joy and celebration as 22 high-achieving undergraduate students from across USC’s three faculties receive awards totalling $14,500.
And there will be a degree of sadness as the USC community remembers several friends of the University who have passed away recently, but whose legacies live on in bursaries.
Among the awards being presented tomorrow are the inaugural Ann McDougall Co-op Bookshop Memorial Bursaries. Ann, who was the founding manager of the bookshop on campus, died suddenly in December 2008.
Another award–the Sunshine Coast Sports Medicine Clinic Bursary–was established in 2005 by Dr June Canavan who died tragically last year in a plane crash in Papua New Guinea.
Several other awards will be presented tomorrow in memory of loved ones or colleagues.
University Foundation Executive Officer Andrew Pentland praised the award sponsors whose contributions are helping USC attract and retain some of the best and brightest students from the region.
“This investment into young people’s participation in education today has the potential to reap rewards throughout the rest of their lives,” he said.
Mr Pentland said tomorrow’s ceremony coincided with a funeral service for Wyn Rahilly, who had been a strong supporter of the University of the Sunshine Coast since it opened in 1996.
He said Wyn, who became one of USC’s first Honorary Senior Fellows in 1999, was instrumental in establishing the University of the Third Age at the USC campus and had been a dedicated volunteer at the USC Art Gallery.
— Terry Walsh