Indigenous student Toni Ah-Sam is this years’ Morning Star Scholarship recipient and one of 38 Charles Darwin University (CDU) students who have received a donor scholarship.
Toni will be presented with a scholarship certificate at this years’ donor Scholarship Presentation Ceremony, to be held at CDU’s Nhulunbuy, Alice Springs and Casuarina campuses on May 24.
A second year Bachelor of Business student, Toni describes her studies at CDU as “a wonderful experience that has allowed me to grow both personally and academically. As I near completion of this course, there is such a hope for my future that the opportunities seem endless.”
She says the support of the academic staff has been very important: “I would like to take this time to thank all of the academic staff of CDU in particular the Indigenous staff. You have all invested your time and effort in helping me achieve a desire that has been in my heart since I was very young. It has been your words of encouragement, support and growing friendship that has kept me here to finish this part of my journey. I am extremely grateful to all of you.”
Toni also offers words of encouragement to other Indigenous students studying at CDU: “I know at times it seems like a hard and very challenging journey you have undertaken. I encourage you to keep pushing through, don’t be too proud to ask for help along the way as there will be someone just waiting for the opportunity to step in and assist you in anyway possible.”
Toni says the Morning Star Scholarship will assist her financially as she works toward the end of her final semester.
Sharon Harwood will receive the CSC IT-Enabled Environment Postgraduate Scholarship at the ceremony.
Sharon is a town planner who specialises in providing tourism planning services to rural and remote clients. Her main area of research interest is social psychological aspects of the leisure experience and applying this information to the planning and management of natural areas.
This research focuses on investigating and developing a planning methodology that places the tourist (in this instance bird watchers) and the destination community in the centre of a planning system to determine the appropriateness and suitability of bird watching tourism in tropical rainforest settings.
Sharon’s past research activities have included social carrying capacity studies for the Upper Noosa River National Park and Tully River, willingness to pay for an urban forest recreation experience, motivations for visiting state forests in South East Queensland and sense of place in the Lake Baroon Catchment: An analysis of attitudes, motivations and environmentally responsible behaviours.
Sharon is doing a PhD in Ecotourism in Tropical Rainforests (particularly bird tourism).
Sharon will not be attending the ceremony; her supervisor, Richard Noske, will collect the scholarship certificate on her behalf.
Ceremonies at Nhulunbuy, Alice Springs and Casuarina campuses will take place at 5:30pm, 24 May.