Students in NSW and the ACT will have the opportunity to win cash prizes and donate money their favourite charity when entries open for Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) 2010 Making a Difference competition. CSU’s Making a Difference (MaD) Social Justice Innovation Award is open to all students in NSW and ACT in Year 10, 11 or 12 at high school or a student aged 15 to 21 years at TAFE. “The competition gives young people the opportunity to have an input into the challenging issues such as homelessness, teen suicide, drugs, poverty and crime,” said competition coordinator Mr Bill Anscombe, a senior lecturer in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at CSU. “This competition offers young people the platform to tell their story.” Students were asked to write a story, poem or script that addresses any issue of social justice for the chance to win $250 cash and to select a charity of their choice which CSU would then make a $250 donation to on their behalf.

Innovative thinking and action to foster positive attitudes to mental health problems and linking individual struggles and social justice are promoted in NSW by a joint initiative between Charles Sturt University (CSU) and the University of Western Sydney (UWS). Professor David Fryer, Professor of Community Critical Psychology at CSU’s newly established School of Psychology in Bathurst, and UWS Professor of Women’s Health Psychology, Professor Jane Ussher, will convene a half-day workshop - Freeing up our minds: critical alternatives to drug-focused approaches to mental health – at UWS on Thursday 22 April. Professor Fryer will describe and illustrate his work with ‘artivists’, self-styled ‘survivors of psychiatry’ who use artistic media in community settings to uncover and contest mental health-related oppression. “We have taken advantage of the visit to Australia by Dr Rufus May, a groundbreaking British clinical psychologist, mental health activist and media personality, to convene a workshop for those interested in socially-just alternatives to pharmacological and medical approaches to mental health,” Professor Fryer said. More information on the workshop is available from Professor David Fryer on (02) 6338 4450 or send an email.

Leading Australian energy supplier Country Energy has sponsored the Charles Sturt University (CSU) Remote Telescope by installing a dedicated high speed fibre optic line stretching 1.5 kilometres to enable students around the world to study the universe as seen from the Southern Hemisphere. The initiator and administrator of the CSU Remote Telescope, Associate Professor David McKinnon, from the School of Teacher Education in Bathurst, said the generous offer by Country Energy ensures the viability of the long-running project by providing up-to-date technological links to the Internet. “Country Energy has taken the ‘long view’ to assist starry-eyed school students everywhere. I’m over the moon! The in-kind support consists of plant labour and parts, which is mainly an optical fibre cable backbone link and termination devices. This will ensure faster and more secure download times and viewing opportunities for students,” Professor McKinnon said.

Ms Kath Read has travelled from South Australia to take part in residential classes in Orange as part of her distance education studies in Ecological Agricultural Systems  at Charles Sturt University (CSU). Tired of sitting at a desk in her career as a successful graphic and web designer, Ms Read decided to quit her job and complete a permaculture course in Adelaide. Having gained the certificate, she has now moved on to a degree which she hopes will see her consulting in third world countries, ensuring farms can be more sustainable. “If you want to get somewhere and be taken seriously, I think a degree is the best thing you can do,” Ms Read said. “By coming along to the residential classes, I can meet like-minded people taking the course, and bounce ideas around before heading back home and continuing my studies.” Residential schools for distance education courses are taking place on CSU campuses across central and southern NSW throughout the week.

The effective management of diabetes, one of Australia’s major health problems, will come through input from a range of health professionals, not just a general practitioner (GP), says Professor of Rural and Remote Pharmacy Patrick Ball of Charles Sturt University (CSU). In response to the Federal Government’s plan to keep the growing number of diabetics out of hospital, Professor Ball said one-on-one professional input from diabetes educators, dietitians, pharmacists, physiotherapists and exercise physiologists are needed to tackle the health problem. “While additional resources are welcome, the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s plan seems to lack a clear appreciation of how the outcomes will best be delivered, particularly in inland Australia,” Professor Ball said. “While the GP must always be kept in the information loop, routing all the resources through already over-worked general practices is unlikely to be the best way to achieve the outcomes for which the government is aiming.” Professor Ball believes the successful control of Type 2 Diabetes requires that the diabetic takes their prescribed treatment but successful management also requires a change of diet and lifestyle.  “This has to come from the person, the family and the community.  How can one person change their diet if the rest of their household will not?  How can people walk more if we don’t have safe streets and pavements?” questioned Professor Ball.

A paramedic from the South Australia Ambulance Service brings a different perspective on pre-hospital ambulance practice to her new role as a paramedic educator at Charles Sturt University (CSU). Professor of Paramedic Practice and Leadership at CSU’s School of Biomedical Sciences in Bathurst, Professor Peter O’Meara, welcomed the appointment of Ms Rhiannon Evans, saying, “Rhiannon strengthens the paramedic program through her experience as a recent graduate and her clinical practice. She brings the youth and vitality that was so much a feature of her leadership role within Student Paramedics Australasia (SPA), a special interest group of the Australian College of Ambulance Professionals.” Ms Evans’ first interaction with CSU staff and students was in her role with SPA. “I was surprised at how relaxed and friendly everyone was,” she said. “Even before I applied for the lecturer position, I was being supported and encouraged. I’m a strong believer that a great education is student-driven and is about encouraging students to focus their learning to get the most from their experiences.”

The Lithgow Ambulance Station will be recognised on Wednesday 24 March by Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) School of Biomedical Sciences in Bathurst for being the ambulance station that provided the best mentoring for CSU paramedic students during 2009. Senior representatives of NSW Ambulance and paramedic students who went to Lithgow for clinical placements in 2009 will be present when Professor Peter O’Meara and senior lecturer Ms Veronica Madigan, the 2009 CSU Lecturer of the Year, present the School’s Certificate of Excellence in Clinical Mentoring. Professor O’Meara said, “This inaugural award is in appreciation of the positive role of the Lithgow paramedics in preparing CSU paramedic students for practice. The selection of the Lithgow station for this award was based on feedback from students who undertook clinical placements at 50 ambulance stations throughout NSW. The mentoring approach of the Lithgow paramedics has set a standard that other ambulance stations can now aim for in order to make a major contribution to the education and training of paramedic students.”

Charles Sturt University (CSU) will recognise academic excellence among its graduating students and the wider community at Graduation in Orange on Friday 26 March. Graduates include those studying Agricultural Business Management, Nursing, Pharmacy and Clinical Science. The occasional address will be delivered by Mr Charles Armstrong, President of the NSW Farmers Association, and the vote of thanks on behalf of graduates will be given by Agricultural Business Management graduate Mr Simon Crump, who recently participated in a two month Australian Indonesian Youth Exchange Program and has begun his career in the agricultural industry at the NSW Farmers Association in Sydney. The graduation ceremony will be held at the Orange Civic Theatre at 10.30am on Friday 26 March with graduates, their families and friends attending the ceremony.

Undergraduate business students from South Korea and China who will study business at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Bathurst will be welcomed at a special morning tea  on Wednesday 24 March. The Acting Head of the School of Business, Dr PK Basu, said the students will spend at least one year completing the CSU undergraduate business degrees they commenced at Donggkuk University in Seoul, South Korea, or at Jilin University in Changchun, China. “This is the first group of students from Donggkuk University to study at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst, and they chose this campus because of the climate and the access to Sydney,” Dr Basu said. “Students from Jilin University have been studying Charles Sturt University business courses for the last decade, and its academics and students regularly visit the University’s campuses in Australia. This year we have 12 Chinese students studying in Bathurst. Both groups of students have said they are enjoying their educational experience and the rural and regional setting,” Dr Basu said. It is expected that the number of students from Korea and China studying at CSU in Bathurst will continue to grow.