Celebrating regional youth

It was a welcome return to normality this year when the Country Education Foundation of Australia (CEF) held its annual Alumni Awards in person once again. With more than 140 people on hand at Vibe Hotel in the nation’s capital to take part in the celebrations, students past and present, families, supporters and partners of CEF again got to celebrate the outstanding achievements of a talented group of young people hailing from country and rural areas who have achieved outstanding results in their individual endeavours.

The Audi Foundation has partnered with CEF since 2017 providing funding for scholarships that have seen young people from country centres pursue their career dreams in a broad range of subjects and disciplines. This has meant providing the financial assistance to allow these talented individuals to pursue tertiary studies and vocational opportunities that would simply not have been available to them given their geographical location – not only denying the individuals the opportunity but also denying the broader community if that talent were to go unrealised.

The CEF Alumni Awards recognise those members of this wonderful community, past and present who have achieved excellence and for them to be recognised by their communities, families and the CEF network for their extraordinary achievements.

As always, the greatest challenge for the 2022 awards was trying to narrow down the 55 nominations across the five categories, such was the talent and level of achievement again on show across a vast array of industries, trades and professions. The depth of talent and drive is such that realistically every one of those nominated has demonstrated excellence in their chosen vocation and demonstrated why the Country Education Foundation of Australia and its scholarship programs are so important.

Paul Sansom, Chairman of Audi Foundation has seen firsthand the achievements of the scholarship recipients since the beginning of the partnership and recognises the ongoing contribution they make to the broader community.

“The real, tangible results we see though our work with CEF, made it an easy decision to support the wonderful work of Country Education Foundation,” he said of the current crop of award recipients.

“Having seen the incredible achievements of tonight’s winners and the passion they inspire in their communities, we are proud to support CEF and the alumni awards.”

CEF Alumni Program Manager Emma Burns says the response to this year’s event was overwhelming. “We are humbled that the opportunity we provide to recognise our past and present recipients has been so well received. Volunteers, nominees, family and friends were so excited to attend, we had to close RSVPs to the event. This response shows just how valued our rural and regional youth are by our communities.”

This year, the Audi Foundation – CEF Community Alumni Champion went to Katie Jayne O’Brien, while James Anderson was voted the Audi Foundation – CEF Young Achiever. Corrin Paepke and Jayden Reid were both named Audi Foundation – CEF Launching Stars while Ayisha Fearnside was recognised with the Audi Foundation – CEF Rising Star award.

Taking the Audi Foundation – CEF award as Alumnus of the Year for 2022 was South Australian Elise Prior, who was supported 2016 to 2020 to undertake a Bachelor of Psychological Science (Honours) at the University of Adelaide. 

On receiving her award, Elise summed up the CEF Alumni Awards and indeed the scholarship program best when she said:

“The calibre of winners and nominees, both past and present, is a testament to what an Australia that has fully achieved educational equity for rural youth would look like. It is a tangible demonstration of how important the Country Education Foundation’s work to achieve that equity is.”

Congratulations to each of the 2022 CEF Alumni Awards winners and to all those nominated for their outstanding efforts and achievements.