Change the future of young high-potential girls

The ABCN Scholarship Foundation Accelerate program has continued throughout 2024 to play a crucial role in empowering young girls to pursue their dream futures despite the inequalities they face. The success of the Leadership Summit in May and the strong interest in next year’s scholarships are a testament to the program’s positive impact.

Leadership Summit – Year 1 Scholars

This year’s summit marked the beginning of a life changing three-year journey for 22 high potential young girls with our inaugural Find Your Purpose workshop, developed in collaboration with independent charity, The Purpose Project. Founder of The Purpose Project, Ari Yeganeh, opened the workshop by sharing his personal experience in navigating school and future work choices and pathways.

During the workshop scholars explored their values, ambitions and passions to gain a better understanding of themselves and what’s important to them. Their mentors provided career insight and guidance to help the scholars identify potential careers and pathways that align with their values and utilise their strengths. The success of this new workshop was evident, with 41% of scholars saying it was the most relevant and helpful part of the two-day summit both in their learning and connecting with their mentor.   

“I learnt resilience and about taking initiative. The guest speakers, mentors and scholars really inspired me to work harder and find my passions”

The celebration evening on Day of the Summit, hosted by KPMG in Sydney was a highlight for the scholars at which former NSW Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, left a lasting impression as keynote speaker. Her lived experience as the daughter of Armenian migrant parents resonated with many of the scholars, and her journey as a female building a career in politics both captivated and inspired the young women in our Accelerate program. The confidence they showed in connecting and speaking with her was unlike that we have previously experienced in the scholars so early in the program.  

2024 Scholar Spotlight – Mendy

Mendy lives in regional Australia with her mother and four siblings after her father passed away when she was just two years old. Her mother is unable to work as she cares full time for Mendy’s 19-year-old disabled brother, making it almost impossible for her mother to pay for Mendy’s education.

“Being awarded an ABCN Accelerate scholarship means a lot to me because it helps me pay for many things, including school costs and supplies.”

Alongside the Accelerate program, she participates in Be Bold Be Heard, which is about the voices of female students. As English is not her first language, Mendy’s mentor Georgia has been a great source of support in improving her English and increasing her confidence in communicating.

With Georgia’s guidance, Mendy is committed to planning her pathway to achieve her goals - “As a daughter, I always wanted to make my mother proud by becoming a successful person and work as a Dermatologist or Nurse”.

Scholarship Applications for 2025

2024 Accelerate Scholarship applications for students to begin the program next year have flooded in with 71% being female. Year on year the need to support high achieving young girls to access brighter futures is increasing. We are currently reviewing all 2024 applications and look forward to updating you on the scholarships awarded in our next report.

Links:

• ABCN Scholarship Foundation
• Our Impact
• Our Scholars

YEAR 1 SCHOLAR UPDATE

First School Meetings  

These meetings (during which the new scholars and mentors meet for the first time at the scholar's school campus) kicked off what is going to be a fantastic year for our 2024 cohort of Accelerate scholars and mentors. The nervousness and excitement from the scholars was met with understanding and enthusiasm from the mentors, with an equal match of genuine curiosity from all. It didn't take long for the conversations and laughter to flow, with some real connection evident from the start. ABCN staff and educators alike commented on the joy they felt about these meetings and what a highlight it was for Term 1.  

Leadership Summit 

In May the Year 1 Scholars will travel from across the country to attend the annual Leadership Summit in Sydney, coming together to build connections as a peer group and spending time getting to know their mentors. This year we have introduced a new module at the Summit for our Mentors. The module will provide mentors with the strategies, tools, and techniques to tackle challenging conversations, set boundaries, and will delve into the skillsets and mindsets needed to mentor our scholars with empathy. 

Another highlight at the Summit will be the Find Your Purpose program. Working with mentors’ students will gain a deeper understanding of what’s important to them, and how they can use their strengths to design a life that they will love. Recent research shows that half of high school students feel worried about their future career and less than 25% feel confident. This program is designed to improve those statistics. We are very fortunate to have Ari Yeganeh share his experience at school with deciding what he wanted to do and his career pathway. As the founder of the independent charity The Purpose Project, this is a lovely segway into the program for scholars. 

We will provide a full wrap of the 2024 Leadership Summit including photos in our next Impact Report. 

YEAR 2 AND 3 SCHOLAR UPDATE 

The Goals and Planning Sessions for our 2nd and 3rd year scholars and their mentors were held throughout March in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. During the session the scholars reviewed their goals and priorities for the year. These sessions are vital for setting our scholars on the pathway to their chosen career. The sessions also provided an opportunity for the Year 2 scholars and mentors to draw from the well of experience shared by the Year 3 cohort. The Year 3 scholars spoke about their individual experiences of identifying the pathway to their goals, and discussed how they made choices about university, TAFE or employment. They also talked about the resilience strategies they drew upon and how they maintained their self-care through the final year of high school. ‘Burn out’ and how to avoid it was a hot topic in the room for both scholars and their mentors. 

The scholars harnessed the varied experiences and professional networks of the mentors in the room, putting their curiosity to the test and asking the mentors questions on a variety of topices, including: 

• how they balanced university life with casual work to support themselves, 
• how they have navigated changes in their careers, and 
• how they’ve overcome perceived failures. 

Each of the sessions finished with some speed networking, where mentors rotated around the room and spoke to each student group, exposing the scholars to many different careers and pathways. This vital exercise broadens the horizons of our scholars and ensures they are presented with a wide cross-section of the careers available to them in the future world of work.  

Links:

• About Us
• Why our work is needed
• Our Impact