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Chancellor Michael Codd AC with three of the recipients of the Robert... |
High achievers make UOW graduation history
Four exceptional UOW graduates have made history by jointly being awarded the highest University award – the Robert Hope Memorial Prize – at graduations this week.
Cameron Ferris, Benjamin Moffitt, and twin sisters Teena and Teesha Downton were all awarded the $10 000 prize for outstanding achievement and contribution to the University and wider community.
The Robert Hope Memorial Prize, named after the University’s first Chancellor, is awarded to the University’s outstanding student of the year. However this year the selection committee couldn’t split four candidates.
“This is a very unusual year,” Chancellor Michael Codd AC said. “It’s wonderful that the University of Wollongong has graduates with these qualities.”
“We’ve only ever given one prize but this year there were four people we couldn’t distinguish between. It was impossible to separate them and I doubt it’ll ever happen again,” Mr Codd said.
The award is a remarkable achievement for all four graduates, but for Teena and Teesha, sharing the award with each other adds another special dimension. Teena graduated from a Bachelor of Medical Science this morning (Monday 15 December) and gave the student address as her ceremony, and this afternoon Teesha graduated from a Bachelor of Science (Biotechnology) and also gave the student address.
“I’m proud that I’ve been able to contribute to the university and the community,” Teesha said. “Also, I found that community work complements my academic work and seeing these types of links is nice.
“I think it’s important for students to be involved in their community before they graduate, not just when they finish uni,” Teena said.
Both sisters were involved in the Student Health Alliance for Rural Populations (SHARP) at UOW which has seen them be involved in a number of community events including the International Health Forum in 2007 and National Close the Gap Day. They have also been heavily involved in their local Kiama community with Teesha performing a total of 200 hours community service as part of St John’s Ambulance, and Teena helping to raise over $1500 for the Starlight Children’s Foundation.
The sisters have been accepted into the Graduate School of Medicine at UOW’s Shoalhaven Campus, placing them among only three other sets of twins to study medicine in Australia.
Cameron Ferris, who graduated today with a Bachelor of Nanotechnology Advanced Honours, also received the University Medal (given to the student with the highest academic achiever in each degree) for the Faculty of Science.
“It’s good to receive recognition for my hard work – and it’s an honour to receive this from the University,” Cameron said.
“I found that it was really important to do activities other than just study at University. Working in the community made my degree a bit more meaningful to me.”
At UOW, Cameron has worked as a tutor for disability services, and has been a Faculty representative for Science. In the local community, Cameron has been passionately involved in youth issues and has, among other things, volunteered at Reiby Juvenile Justice Centre in Campbelltown mentoring youth in detention.
The fourth recipient, Benjamin Moffitt, who studied a Bachelor of Arts Honours was unable to attend his graduation ceremony this week. During his degree Ben was elected president of the UOW Greens and was involved in a number of environmental campaigns. He was also involved in the Black Opal Leadership Program and wrote for two student publications the Tertangala and Paper Rock magazines.