Upper Yarra Community Enterprise has selected best friends and former Upper Yarra Secondary College students Ayla Tsoumbakos and Jenny Morris to receive a $2500 Geoff Vickers Scholarship to support their first-year tertiary studies.
The scholarship aims to help young people under 25 in the Upper Yarra pursue and realise their academic dreams and provide support for expenses that might otherwise dissuade our young people from taking the leap towards tertiary education.
It is made possible through the generous support of Community Banks Warburton and Yarra Junction and was first awarded in 2014.
Ms Tsoumbakos from Warburton, who has recently started studying for a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing at Deakin University, said she studied hard through secondary school to be the first person in her family to go to university so she can care for ill people like she had once been.
“I believe I can put my passion into a career where I have background knowledge, helping others that have been through medical issues like me, and to be the kind, generous nurse that I was treated by when I was in hospital for my illness,” she said.
“Completing this university course would give me a huge opportunity to grow and become someone bigger and to help people that have been through the same issues as me.”
Applications opened online in December 2021 and closed in February 2022, before the process to select the recipients ended with the announcement on 26 March.
Ms Morris from Wesburn, who has recently started studying for a Bachelor’s Degree in Science at Deakin University, said she hopes to have a career in wildlife conservation.
“I hope I can assist work efforts in protecting animals as well as educating people in the ways they can protect our wildlife,” she said.
“I am excited to be taking the first steps towards this, working especially hard during my last two years at Upper Yarra Secondary College, to achieve great marks and secure a place to study at Deakin University.”
Geoff Vickers was involved with the Warburton and Yarra Junction Community Bank branches for some 20 years from 1998 to 2019, with the Youth Scholarship award being named in his honour following his departure.
