Every year we are humbled by the feedback we receive from our scholarship students and their mentors. This year has been no exception. We recently received an email from one of our 2014 scholars, Chanleng, who is just finishing her third year of the Accelerate program and her first year of university. In an email to her mentor of three years, Tatjana Ferguson of Fuji Xerox, she said:

‘The ABCN scholarship program has given me a lot of opportunities and without it, I would be giving up on study because of financial problems…but I am now studying Bachelor of Social Science at Western Sydney University and Bachelor of Psychology next year.

My mentor Tatjana, is my role model. She encouraged me to never give up and always said, “you’re doing good, I am proud of you.” I cannot say thank you enough for her warm heart and all the love that she has given to me.

I would like to thank you for the opportunity and all the support – I would not be able to achieve my goals or even finish high school without them. This program has saved my life and helped so many other students. It really meant a lot to me.’

We were also thrilled to hear from Toai Chan from TAL, whose mentee Jing Chen has just finished Year 1 of the program. Earlier in the year he was made school captain of Cabramatta High, and in his end-of-year exams he came first in the year for Physics and achieved 100% in 2 Unit Maths.

The Foundation received over 300 applications this year – a 90% increase from the previous year – from which we awarded 24 new scholarships. Generous funding from Stockland enabled us to award four targeted Indigenous scholarships this year – one of which includes our first ever recipient from South Australia – and another two next year. We are also grateful to Fuji Xerox Australia, KPMG, Microsoft, Minter Ellison, Navitas, Optus, TAL and Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation through the Eldon and Anne Foote Trust – all of whom have supported scholarships this year.

In 2017, 93% of Accelerate students completed Year 12 compared with the national average of 61% of disadvantaged students. We should all be justifiably proud of these results – we could not achieve these results without your generous support. Together we are making a difference.