The Macquarie Matrons have joined with Charles Sturt University (CSU) Dubbo Campus to offer an annual prize through the Charles Sturt Foundation for a female student from the local area to study at CSU in Dubbo. The $1 500 prize will be open to new and continuing female students from the Macquarie Valley, who can use the money for textbooks, travel and living expenses while studying. The Macquarie Matrons hope that their commitment will help make the dream of attending university more of a reality for one local student each year. “The Charles Sturt Foundation is always grateful to organisations willing to provide support to our students,” said Dr Beverley Moriarty, the Head of Campus at CSU in Dubbo. “I applaud the Macquarie Matrons for their generosity and eagerness to give back to the towns they live in by creating this prize for a local student.”

A forum hosted by Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Orange will review Australia’s position within the Asian trade arena, especially Japan and China. Expert speakers, including keynote speaker and Australia’s Japanese Consul General Tsukasa Kawada, will provide up-to-date assessments of economic developments and trade opportunities in Asia. Head of CSU Orange Campus, Professor Kevin Parton, believes the forum encapsulates the University’s strong relationship with Asia. “The Asia Today forum highlights our continuing research and tour visits to Asia and provides a great opportunity for companies and entrepreneurs to review Australia’s trade performance with Asia with the intention of trading with the region.” Issues to be covered will range from a consideration of the general growth prospects in Japan and China through to detailed case studies on how to get started in exporting. The Asia Today forum runs from 9am to 2pm on Friday 22 September. The Orange forum complements an international academic business conference also hosted by CSU that focuses on trade with China, being held on 21 and 22 September in the NSW Blue Mountains > see more.

For those with an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background who are interested in attending university, Charles Sturt University (CSU) has launched a new program which will make the university experience more attainable. CSU’s Indigenous Student Services has introduced a new skills assessment program called Darrambal. “Darrambal means ’footmarks’ or ’roadway’ and is used here to represent the lifelong journey of learning we all travel,” explains CSU’s Indigenous Student Services manager, Mr Ray Eldridge. “The program assesses each person’s skills, abilities and potential to succeed in their preferred course of study. Students who successfully the complete Darrambal program may be offered a place at Charles Sturt University to study their chosen course.” Any person who identifies as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander may attend. “This is the perfect program for anyone who would like to study at university but are not sure if they satisfy the usual entry requirements.”

Charles Sturt University (CSU) is expanding the number of student Accommodation Residences as a major initiative in response to demand from prospective students and their families. CSU’s acting Executive Director of Student Services, Andrew Callander said the University is planning to substantially increase the number of beds available for students and to increase the variety and type of accommodation available. Initially CSU will add around 170 beds by 2009 on all its major campuses: Albury-Wodonga Campus: 48 new beds to come onto the Thurgoona site; Bathurst Campus: Four eight-bed cottages to open by February 2007; Dubbo Campus: Fully commissioning of new student accommodation totalling 62 places; Orange Campus: Converted cottages for 20 students on the CSU Orange Campus; Wagga Wagga Campus: Two eight-bed cottages to come on stream by February each year from 2007 to 2009. A 20-bed complex using funds from a bequest to the University will be built in 2007. “We are also planning for a large scale project to add 600 new beds to meet increasing demand for on-campus accommodation on our Albury-Wodonga, Bathurst and Wagga Wagga campuses,” Mr Callander said. The project will expand the range of accommodation offered and take the total beds available for students on campus at CSU to around 3 000.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) journalism graduate, Courtney Trenwith has won the Minister’s Award for Excellence at the Australian Council of Deans of Education (ACDE) Excellence in Education Journalism Awards. Ms Trenwith received $3 000, as well as high praise for her work. Chair of the ACDE, CSU’s Associate Professor Jo-anne Reid, said Ms Trenwith’s submission was “absolutely outstanding. I was especially impressed that Courtney looked at the human side of education, not just the big issues”. Ms Trenwith says she arrived at the Awards ceremony in Canberra expecting to receive the News category, and was stunned to receive the overall excellence award. She says she loves her work at the Illawarra Mercury newspaper, saying “education was the only round I ever wanted to do”.

Six Charles Sturt University (CSU) early childhood education students will undertake a community project in Dubbo that will focus on the importance of transition to primary school for small children. Titled Working Together for Children: Strengthening Transition Pathways, the project will highlight the importance of a positive transition experience to ensure children move into the school environment successfully. The Working Together for Children project aims to help the community recognise that the early years are the most important of a child’s life and their early experiences can influence their learning in following years. “Positive relationships between early childhood professionals, families, carers and schools are an integral aspect of supporting transition from the home or early childhood setting into the school,” said project representative Corina Windsor.

Jenny Dickinson, a graduate of Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) double degree in psychology and teaching in Bathurst, is one of five young Indigenous people featured in a booklet urging Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders to “join our mob” and become teachers in the New South Wales public school system. The booklet was produced by teach.NSW Public Education, and Jenny was nominated by her principal at Moree East Public School. “I was the first Aboriginal student to accomplish the double degree at CSU,“ Ms Dickinson said. “I became a teacher because it allows me to indulge my passion for Indigenous education. I think it is very important to encourage Indigenous people into teaching. Discrimination is still alive and well in my opinion.”

The changing global communications environment and the increasing role of the consumer were the hot topics when the CEO of the International Advertising Association (IAA) World Secretariat spoke to Charles Sturt University (CSU) advertising students last week. Michael Lee, also the immediate past IAA President, was invited to the Bathurst Campus by Rod McCulloch, CSU’s Advertising course coordinator. “Mr Lee is very familiar with CSU because we have won the IAA’s student advertising competition InterAd three times in six years, the only university in the world to have done so. He is very supportive of what we do here”. Mr McCulloch says the IAA is the industry’s peak body. “It has a presence in over 70 countries and has over 4 000 members. The IAA supports the role of advertising in the community and the fostering of professional development and education.”

"I thought it would be useful to have some industry qualifications,” says Tristam Horn, an Accelerated Teacher Training Program student, of his decision to gain certification in Microsoft® Office. Coming first in Australia in his Excel examination saw the Charles Sturt University (CSU) student win a trip to Orlando, Florida in the USA, where he was then crowned World Champion for Microsoft® Excel. “I learnt a lot that I didn’t know Excel could do. It gave me a better understanding of what it is capable of as far as recording students marks, scaling, grading and graphing, both for my benefit and also for the students to see where they are in the class and in the year. It is an easy way to see how students are going in different areas of their study, and I can see where I need to improve my teaching and hopefully deliver a bit better the next time."