Change the future of young high-potential girls

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.  

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