Change the future of young high-potential girls

The new school year kicked off with a flurry of school visits in each state to welcome our new scholars and the long-awaited return of our singature event the annual Accelerate Leadership Summit. Both of which required significant agility and organisation due to the ongoing impacts of COVID and flooding emergencies in both NSW and QLD.

First Year Scholars update:

At the end of April the ABCN Foundation was delighted to host the first Accelerate Leadership Summit held face-to-face for almost 3 years in Sydney. On the first day of the summit the scholars enjoyed a visit to the Australian Theatre for Young People where they learnt about confidence, public speaking and communication. 

That evening the scholars attended a spectacular celebration dinner at the Macquarie Group building in the Sydney CBD which served to not only wlecome the 42 new scholars for 2022 but also to celebrate the whole network of ABCN's 46 member companies and 200+ schools. During the evening attendees heard directly from the incredibly inspiring scholars like Danya a Year 11 student from Victoria, whose family arrived in Australia as Sudanese refugees with no English and a couple of suitcases, when Danya was three months old.

“ABCN has given me the opportunity to achieve my goals through mentoring and support. It’s a platform to make sure that many more young people who identify similarly to me see someone who is kicking goals, which they can achieve and go beyond.”

On Day 2 of the summit the scholars experienced a Financial Capability session in the morning and a high energy Leadership session in the afternoon led by Craig Griffin Head of Marketing and Sales for Macquarie’s Banking and Financial Services.

Second Year Scholars Update:

Meanwhile our second year scholars set their minds to planning their future with our Goals and Planning sessions alongside their mentors in their home states. During these sessions the scholars worked with the mentors on topics such as early entry to university and what ATAR they are aiming to achieve at the end of Year 12. During the session the scholars also heard from a 3rd Year Scholar and their mentor about how to prepare for the end of Year 12.

At one such session scholar Sydney described the importance of her mentor Sam in shaping her tertiary study choices.

‘How Sam coordinates her team and how she operates as a leader has been really inspiring. Hearing about what she does in the field of engineering has opened my mind up to combining my interest in architecture with engineering as a future pathway. My ideal job would be bringing together a team of architects and engineers to design any sort of infrastructure. I like the idea of applying a combination of creativity and mathematical calculations in my future work.’

Sydney says the ABCN program has changed her in terms of planning for the future. ‘It has encouraged me to plan now for the future so that later there is less stress because we have goals and plans in place and a sense of familiarity with my future pathway,’ she says.  

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