A PARKDALE Secondary College student got a one-week preview of university study in Sydney last week.
Emma Downward is a Year 12 student at Parkdale Secondary. She took part in University of Sydney’s Tahgara residential program, which is designed to increase the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students partaking in higher education.
As part of the five-day program, students attend workshops on exam preparation, scholarship applications, and university pathways.
Downward said she was thankful to have the chance to attend .”I’m so grateful I got to learn so much because all the information can be a bit overwhelming about scholarships and all that, so it was great having the uni team to ask questions and explain everything,” she said.
The Tahgara residential program has been running since 2014. The university’s pro vice-chancellor Indigenous (academic), Professor Jennifer Barrett, said “we were delighted to have high school students from around the country on campus, which stands on lands that have been a place of knowledge exchange for tens of thousands of years.”
“It was great to see students get the most out of the week through hands-on support from expert tutors, academics and support staff, and of course to also enjoy themselves, build new friendships and be inspired by a taste of university life,” Barrett said.
First published in the Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News – 26th July 2023