Graduating Rural Management students at Charles Sturt University (CSU) will be “job ready” according to industry representatives who recently interviewed the students as part of their final assessment. Final year students at the University’s Orange Campus have completed interview sessions with industry leaders and presented portfolios demonstrating their work and capabilities. “We had 15 local industry representatives volunteer their time to give feedback to our final year students on their portfolios and interview techniques,” says Mrs Zelma Bone, Bachelor of Management course coordinator. “Disciplined knowledge and high level skills are what every graduate should have and what employers are looking for,” said Mrs Bone. “Our graduates have always been in high demand but these techniques ensure they are ready to enter the work force and are quickly employed.” Mr John Chilcott, senior manager at the Manildra Flour Mills, said the students he interviewed were ready to apply for positions. “The great thing about this type of preparation for job applications is that when it comes to recruiting, it sorts the wheat from the chaff.”

A senior Charles Sturt University (CSU) social researcher is leading research and discussion into the influence of globalisation on economic development and human security in the Asia-Pacific region. Dr Manohar Pawar, a principal researcher in CSU’s Institute for Land, Water and Society, believes globalisation “is good if it helps erradicate poverty and reduce global inequalities”. In October, Dr Pawar organised a major international conference on the topic in Thailand, in collaboration with Thailand’s Thammasat University and Taisho and Kyushu universities, Japan. “Confronted by extreme poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, disorder and violence and many other social problems, the conference delegates presented positive examples from the region showing that alternative social development approaches must include and allow participation in the planning and implementation of projects by the people affected by them,” Dr Pawar said.

“The big question is, do some adults improve their lives after a parent’s cancer experience? It sounds quite odd, because how could anything good possibly come from this?” Janelle Levesque from Charles Sturt University’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences will research how having a parent with cancer impacts on their adult children. “For some, cancer can act as a wake-up call. Some realise life is too short to stay in work they don’t like while others switch to more family-friendly or part time work. Another change may be the realisation that the little things are not so important. The wet towel on the bathroom floor really doesn’t matter, what matters is making time to speak to the kids for 10 minutes before bed.” Ms Levesque says the biggest area of change is that “most people find that their family grows closer through the experience”.

Samdech Hun Sen, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia will inspect the Wagga Wagga Campus of Charles Sturt University (CSU) on Thursday 12 October. He will be accompanied by a large delegation from Cambodia, a country in Southeast Asia with a population of more than 13 million. Head of the University’s Wagga Wagga Campus Professor David Green says the Prime Minister is visiting Wagga Wagga as part of his official visit to Australia. “The Cambodian Prime Minister expressed an interest in seeing Australian agricultural facilities, hence the visit to our Campus.” Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Goulter said “it is very clear that our model of collaboration with government agencies and with industry, as demonstrated with the E H Graham Centre and the National Wine and Grape Industry Centre, is a model for other countries to use.”  The Cambodian delegation will be briefed on current collaborations between the NSW Department of Primary Industry and Cambodian research institutions before a luncheon hosted by CSU. Professor Deirdre Lemerle, Director of the E H Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation, a joint research venture between CSU and the NSW Department of Primary Industries, says the visit is a “tremendous opportunity to showcase our excellent research capacity in agriculture, and further develop our collaborative links with Cambodia to create profitable and sustainable agricultural systems.”

Charles Sturt University Rural Management lecturer, Sue Johnson, has returned from the Camden Equestrian Centre where she worked as the NSW Elite Horse Coach during the week-long Polocrosse Australian National Championships. A lecturer in Livestock Production and a passionate horse enthusiast, Sue jumped at the chance to be involved in this prestigious event. Held every two years, the Polocrosse Australian National Championships is attended by 400 players and 700 horses from around Australia, as well as over 7 500 spectators. Ms Johnson’s responsibilities included pre-competition checking that the horses were fit and prepared for the games. Polocrosse claims is a “truly Australian made sport” (along with AFL and campdrafting) being developed in Australia in the 1930s from a mix of polo, lacrosse and netball.

"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."

To celebrate the launch of Charles Sturt University’s Pharmacy course in Orange, an ornate piece of local history has returned to the city after spending several years in Wagga Wagga. Two ornate carboys the large traditional glass vessels that are a recognised symbol of pharmacy were originally donated by Max McCarthy, the previous long time proprietor of McCarthy’s Pharmacy in Orange, to the Pharmacy course at CSU Wagga Wagga Campus in recognition of the establishment of the first pharmacy course offered in inland Australia. In the 18th & 19th centuries the carboy was used to show customers a sample or 'specie' of the drugs they would use in compounding medicines. One of these ornately decorated 50-centimetre tall jars has been returned to Orange to mark the introduction of CSU’s Pharmacy course at the Orange Campus. Mr McCarthy and Malcolm Rosborough, the current owner of McCarthy Pharmacy and a governor of the CSU Pharmacy Foundation will visit CSU Orange Campus to place the carboy on permanent display at the Pharmacy laboratory.

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.”

Being described as a “Walkley winning journalist of the future” must be a heady feeling for any communication student. Matthew Brann, a Charles Sturt University theatre media student in Bathurst has just taken out the radio section of the 2006 JUST Super Student Journalist of the Year Award, announced by JUST Super and the Walkley Foundation. Matthew says his radio item, A Darling Place grew out of his major work last year. “I travelled the Darling River doing stories about the river and its impact on the local communities, where the drought is really affecting small towns. I focused on my own style, which uses a lot of music and actuality.” The judges obviously liked what they heard, saying A Darling Place was a “lovely, whimsical yarn. It provides a wonderful slice of country life that is not often heard in mainstream Australian media”.