Archive
National awards for CSU olives
Wednesday, 1 Jan 2003
Olives from Charles Sturt University (CSU) have placed well in the 2008 Royal Canberra Extra Virgin Olive Oil Show. During a ceremony held on Saturday 20 September, the olive oil produced by ‘Long Paddock Olive Rustlers at Charles Sturt University’ received two silver medals and a bronze medal. In the show’s Class One Small Volume Bottled Category, the oils known as Suspence and After Glow received silver, and the oil Heritage Trees received bronze. “I am absolutely delighted at these results in the national competition for the industry,” said Mr Shane Cummins from Long Paddock Olive Rustlers. “The medals are a tribute to the quality of the olives picked from the Experimental Olive Grove and Heritage Olive at CSU earlier this year.” The 7th Royal Canberra Extra Virgin Olive Oil Show was conducted under the auspices of the Royal National Capital Agricultural Society to showcase the quality product now being produced by the Australian olive oil industry. Read more about the two olive groves at CSU’s Wagga Wagga Campus here.Education for Sustainability conference at CSU
Wednesday, 1 Jan 2003
Promoting education for environmental sustainability is the focus of a conference for the Bathurst community and primary and secondary school teachers at Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Bathurst Campus on Friday 24 October. Ms Jan Page, lecturer at the School of Teacher Education which is organising the conference, said the meeting is timely given the attention that environmental issues are receiving. “Education for Sustainability: Connecting Classrooms and Communities aims to raise the importance of environmental education in schools, while providing practical ideas that teachers and the community can adapt and adopt. The focus is on ways that education for environmental sustainability can be used to integrate various aspects of the school curriculum and for connecting classrooms and communities." The conference will include a panel discussion with teachers who have experience of developing environmental initiatives in schools.
Funding boost for sustainable farming practices
Wednesday, 1 Jan 2003
Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) strong tradition of working with farmers to provide solutions to agricultural challenges is continuing through collaboration on a project with Murrumbidgee Landcare to manage drought through sustainable farming systems. Funded by grocery giant Woolworths, the project was launched by the NSW Minister for Primary Industries, The Hon. Ian Macdonald, MP, at the Henty Machinery Fields Days in the Riverina on Tuesday 23 September. Researchers from the EH Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation will work on the project with Murrumbidgee Landcare and farmers at Henty, Junee, Mirrool Creek and Harden. Centre director Professor Deirdre Lemerle says encouraging farmers to retain the stubble from cereal crops, rather than burning it, increases soil moisture and carbon content. “The funding means we can continue to work closely with farmers to manage stubble for soil health, which, in association with integrated weed management, aims to secure the long term sustainability of agriculture,” she said.
Mental health workers for Indigenous Australia
Wednesday, 1 Jan 2003
An innovative Charles Sturt University (CSU) program to educate and train Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to work as mental health and drug and alcohol practitioners in their communities will be on show later this week. Nine final year students in the Bachelor of Health Science (Mental Health) will attend an Indigenous mental health conference on CSU’s Wagga Wagga Campus on Thursday 25 September. The students from across Australia will address mental health topics involving colonisation, carers, Aboriginal women, drugs and sexual assault. Known as the Djirruwang Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health program, the course aims to build workforce capacity and improve health care in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities by equipping the graduates to work in mainstream and cultural organisations and communities. The conference is being held during the students’ final residential school at CSU. Professor Elaine Duffy, Head of the CSU School of Nursing and Midwifery, Mr Ray Eldridge, the Manager of CSU Indigenous Support Unit, and Mr Wayne Rigby, the Director of the Djirruwang program, will also address the conference.
Students in partnership with stroke victims
Wednesday, 1 Jan 2003
With a significant percentage of stroke victims left with speech and language impairments, Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) speech pathology course is training a new generation of therapists to ensure that the focus is always on getting people back to the activities that are important to them. Lecturer at CSU’s School of Community Health, Ms Libby Clark, believes that rehabilitation after stroke is something that should not stop at the hospital door. “It needs to reach right back to the community level to support people who have strokes to get back into the everyday activities that give their lives meaning,” she says. “The CSU program strongly emphasises the social aspects of health to students. This teaches them to think beyond what the person can’t do, and to think about what the person can do, and what everyday activities are important to the person. Our students get very practical, hands-on experience during the four year course, with a real emphasis on working in partnership with the client and their families.”
'Green' building open for business
Wednesday, 1 Jan 2003
Charles Sturt University (CSU) academics have moved into their new ‘green home’ as part of the next phase of the University’s $40 million building program at Thurgoona. The building will initially house over 20 academic, research and general staff from the new School of Business and Information Technology (SBIT). It includes a ground-breaking material which helps regulate temperatures inside buildings to reduce the need for air conditioning. Developed by German-based industrial chemical company BASF, the building material is in the form of special plaster boards and flooring screed. This material includes small granules of a waxlike material that liquefies at higher temperatures, increasing its capacity to absorb heat from surrounding air. The building also includes other energy saving and environmentally friendly features such as double glazed windows, good use of daylight to reduce the need for office lighting, rainwater collection for flushing toilets, an automated building management system to control ventilation and temperature, and roof funnels for purging hot air from the building at night. The University is awaiting final notification of the ‘green star’ rating of the building with the Green Building Council of Australia. Heart Day calls for Health Clinics
Wednesday, 1 Jan 2003On World Heart Day, Sunday 28 September, health researchers from Charles Sturt University (CSU) are calling for more university-based health clinics in rural areas based on research recently conducted in rural south-eastern NSW and north-eastern Victoria. The research has discovered diabetes complications, such as cardiovascular disease, contribute to morbidity and mortality even before diabetes has been diagnosed. CSU diabetes expert Dr Herbert Jelinek is part of a research team investigating how diabetes associated with atherosclerosis, a disease affecting arterial blood vessels, affects the autonomic nervous system and leads to disturbed heart rhythms. “Hypertension is a major risk factor for coronary heart disease and is estimated to cause 4.5 per cent of current global disease burden,” Dr Jelinek says. “Early identification of those with higher risk of autonomic nervous system dysfunction, can reduce casualties of severe cardiovascular disease.”
CSU students to do business in China
Wednesday, 1 Jan 2003Two Charles Sturt University (CSU) business students will take their university education to China in 2009 after each won a $5 000 scholarship allowing them to study at a Chinese university for one semester. Wodonga’s Mr Brenton Olsen and Mr Cobie Butler from Albury are currently enrolled in international business management degrees with CSU’s School of Business and Information Technology, based at Thurgoona. Both have been selected for their academic records and their representative skills to attend a Chinese university in partnership with CSU. While there, the students will undertake intensive training in Business Chinese that will be credited to their CSU degree in international business management. Mr Olsen said, “The chance to learn Mandarin and to have an understanding of Chinese culture, society and business practices will be invaluable in my future career.” Previous participants in the program have returned to China after completing their degrees, including Mr Angus Coghlan from Gerogery who is currently based in Shanghai in a management position with a global logistics firm. Both students leave for China in February 2009.
International experience for future teachers
Wednesday, 1 Jan 2003Charles Sturt University (CSU) education student and future teacher Ms Rebekah Salvaire was on a holiday with a difference when she travelled recently to Korea as part of her studies with the University’s Murray School of Education. With assistance from CSU, the final year student realised her goal to visit and work in Korea, while learning more about herself. “I learnt so much about my own culture by being removed from it. It made me realise how much my culture impacts on who I am. I am now studying subjects back here in Australia that requires me to reflect on the privileges of my culture and identity. My overseas experience has shaped and grown me – it was not just a holiday." CSU education lecturer Ms Sharon Milsome led the group of eight students to South Korea for four weeks, which included a teaching practicum in an international school. “We were completely immersed in Korean culture with lectures on its history, language, economy and business, cuisine and culture.” Twelve students will gain further international experience in October when they travel to the Pacific Island country of Vanuatu to teach for one week in local primary schools.
Vocational award for CSU student
Wednesday, 1 Jan 2003
Combining her studies with two jobs, family responsibilities and community service work is part of the juggling act Mrs Jill Morris has successfully performed for a number years. Mrs Morris, from Dubbo in the NSW central west, was named in September as the NSW Vocational Student of the Year at the NSW State Training Awards, hosted by the NSW Department of Education and Training (DET). Mrs Morris is benefiting from a joint program introduced by Charles Sturt University (CSU) and the TAFE NSW Western Institute in 2005. Students enrol at the two institutions and begin their social work studies in three courses at the same time, including the CSU Bachelor of Social Work. As part of her CSU degree, Mrs Morris has this month started her work placement in oncology at Dubbo Base Hospital. “The TAFE/CSU initiative has offered me an opportunity to study at a level that I would not have considered without the joint venture,” said Mrs Morris. “Jill’s success in her studies demonstrates the success that many social work students achieve when they return to learning with a wealth of personal, family and community life experiences,” said Mr Neil Barber, lecturer in the CSU School of Humanities and Social Sciences in Wagga Wagga.