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Community visits USC in busy week
5 September 2009
The University has been involved with a number of community activities during the last week, some of which are directly related to our academic programs and others which are related to community engagement.
On August 24, Headstart Scholarships were presented to year 11 and 12 students who have undertaken a course at University level. This year we awarded 28 students from 22 schools donor-funded awards. There were over one hundred students, school staff and parents at this ceremony. The experience students receive through Headstart can be life changing as explained by a number of the recipients.
The following night the Innovation Centre hosted its monthly activity Enterprise Tuesday where businesses from the Innovation Centre and the community, as well as our staff and students, had the opportunity to listen to a speaker and then network with like minded people who have an interest in entrepreneurship.
A few nights later on August 27 USC’s Art Gallery hosted the opening of the exhibition “Creative Generation Excellence Awards in Visual Art and Design”. This exhibition recognises and promotes excellence in senior visual arts education throughout Queensland’s state and non-state schools. The Gallery hosts this exhibition for schools from the Sunshine Coast region. In total 51 students from 21 secondary schools from the Coast are exhibiting their work. Selected works from this exhibition tour Queensland and are then exhibited at the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane. There were close to 400 people at the opening of this event from teachers to students to proud family members.
Festuri followed a few days later. Although not a University event, the campus has been host to this multicultural activity for a number of years. Multiculturism is an important element of our society and our University. It is wonderful to see people come to this event from different backgrounds and enjoy the peaceful environment the University offers while they display their cultural heritage.
The last event during this busy week was the memorial service for Dr June Canavan held on August 31. The University was approached by the organisers of the service to enquire if the service could be held in the Sports Stadium next to the Health and Sport Centre. Although this is not a normal activity for USC, June was a friend of this University and so we made available the stadium for this very special service. Health and Sport were always top of the list for June, so it seemed fitting to respond to the request to hold the event at this venue. June’s support of our students and her energy in seeking ways to help USC will be sadly missed.
The University has matured over the years to be seen as an important community beacon not only for academic achievement for our school children and business pursuits for our entrepreneurs, but also for important activities that bring our community together to celebrate our diversity and that of a life, well lived, but cut short.
Professor Paul Thomas AM is Vice-Chancellor and President at the University of the Sunshine Coast.