A Charles Sturt University (CSU) education researcher is starting a study that focuses on young children identified as being gifted. PhD student with the CSU School of Education, Ms Nikki Masters, said the study aims to find out more about the experiences of children identified as gifted as they begin their primary schooling. “For a child identified as gifted, the transition to school may bring different challenges. For example, children already reading may stop reading in the first weeks of school, having realised that other children did not read and were not expected to. When these children are left without appropriate support, emotional, social or behavioural difficulties may occur. While the educational needs of all children must be considered, the intellectual, social and emotional needs of gifted children should be also considered in their schooling.” Ms Masters is seeking children aged four or five years old who are currently attending a pre-school in Albury or surrounding Riverina district during 2012 and will start school in 2013 to gather their stories, as well as the stories of their parents, carers and educators. These children should have been identified as gifted by either their parent or their pre-school teacher. For further details about the research project, send Ms Masters an email.

Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Equine Business Management might sound like all course work and no horseplay, but lecturer Amanda Warren-Smith says this is far from the case. Students regularly take part in competitions, especially one day eventing (ODE). Most recently, a ODE was held at the University’s Orange Campus on Sunday 29 October. Organised and conducted by all first year students of the Equine Business Management course, the day catered for riders who are just starting out in eventing through to those who are about to take the step into the international level of competition. Ms Warren-Smith says it is a very demanding sport comparable with a human triathlon. “The horse needs to be flexible and in-tune to the rider for dressage, have the speed and endurance necessary for cross country, and then be agile and controlled enough to complete a successful showjumping round.” CSU’s next horse competition will be held in March 2007.

Sprung Festival 06, a showcase of performance, media and theatre from final year Communication students at Charles Sturt University (CSU) is underway for 2006. Running for the next three weeks, theatre / media students will “dazzle” audiences at various venues around Bathurst, according to Annabel Scholes, lecturer in the School of Communication at CSU’s Bathurst Campus. She says the students have used a variety of performance skills learned over the past three years to make theatre which is “fun, entertaining and witty.” Shows include a twisted coming of age tale set in a circus tent, reality television theatre, musical comedy, a psychological thriller set in a psychiatric ward, a high school rock concert, absurdist drama and a classic love story from Greek mythology.

A team of Port Macquarie High School Year 11 business students has won a competition from 192 similar teams in 29 regional schools across NSW and Victoria. The ‘Jokers’ team, consisting of Mitchell Davis and Mark Han, was the overall winner in the year-long Game On competition run by Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Faculty of Business. Senior business teacher and competition coordinator in the local school, Ms Dianne Davison, said the students benefited from participating in the competition as it required them to analyse situations, study information and make complex and difficult decisions. “I am sure they have increased their interests in a business career as they experienced the thrill and challenge of making high level business decisions and saw the relevance of what they learned in their school courses,” Ms Davison said. The ‘virtual business’ the students ran in the simulation game was based on the automobile industry, where they needed to make decisions on human resources, marketing, operations and finance during the competition. The Dean of CSU’s Faculty of Business, Professor Lesley White, will present a prize of $2 500 to the winning school and team at 9am at Port Macquarie High School on Wednesday 10 October. Charles Sturt University will offer its Bachelor of Business Studies on its Port Macquarie Campus in 2013.

Staff and students of Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Orange are gearing up for National Ride2Work on Wednesday 17 October. The CSU team will be riding as part of Ride2Uni day, which runs concurrently with the Ride2Work activities at university and TAFE campuses across the country. CSU in Orange campus services manager, Mr Mark Chapman, said the University had also held a successful ride for NSW Bike Week last month. “We had a great turnout for that event, and we’re hoping to have even more riders for Ride2Uni day,” he said. “The Ride2Work and Ride2Uni days are a great incentive for people to try riding to work for the first time and to get a sense for the enjoyment and health benefits that can be had from cycling regularly.” The CSU team will muster at Bills Beans on McLachlan Street, Orange, at 8am and leave for the University at about 8.15am. Cyclists will be served a continental breakfast at Banjo’s Café and can register for the ride online.

Public relations students from Charles Sturt University (CSU) are collaborating with event organisers to deliver bigger and better car racing, wine and food festivals in Bathurst. Mr Donald Alexander, senior lecturer in public relations (PR) at the CSU School of Communication and Creative Industries in Bathurst, said both students and the festival organisers win from these collaborations. “The Bachelor of Communication (Public Relations) students gain practical experience by working on large projects such as last weekend’s V8 Supercars Race at Mount Panorama, this week’s Bathurst Region Eats & Drinks (BRE&D) Week from 8 to 14 October and the related National Cool Climate Wine Show,” Mr Alexander said. “At least six PR students worked in the corporate office and media centre for the V8 Supercars Race to provide assistance and enhance their understanding of managing a major event and media liaison. With the new BRE&D Week and the National Cool Climate Wine Show, the students get to plan and manage an event, and develop media stories and pitch them to a range of media. They also create innovative concepts, such as this year organising for local ABC Radio to attend the wine show judging to interview associated people and cross ‘live’ to the studio.”

Students and staff at Charles Sturt University (CSU), some sporting silly socks, are calling on residents in Albury-Wodonga to ‘sock it to diabetes’ as part of activities recognising Foot Health Month across Australia. Students enrolled in the podiatry degree at CSU in Albury-Wodonga are providing screening tests for participants to assess the health of their feet and to show them good self-help practices to care for their feet. Podiatry course coordinator and leading ‘silly sock wearer’ Associate Professor Paul Tinley said the screening activities were part of CSU’s commitment to address the appalling number of foot amputations caused by poor foot health in people afflicted with diabetes. “It is critically important that all people with diabetes understand the risk of injury to their feet. Feet are so far from the heart that they are often the first places to show the problems of poorly controlled diabetes such as reduced sensation. This can lead eventually to lower limb amputation and a significant impact on mobility and health. Checking your feet is important for us all, plus I like the silly socks!” Professor Tinley said.

The importance of education to individuals and communities in regional Australia is the focus of a public lecture by a leading Indigenous academic at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Dubbo on Wednesday 24 October. Professor Jeannie Herbert, AM, the Foundation Chair of Indigenous Studies at the Centre for Indigenous Studies, at CSU will reflect on her own research when she delivers her lecture titled Empowering Communities. Professor Herbert has 25 years experience as a teacher in schools and 17 years in tertiary education. Before joining CSU in November 2009, she served in a range of roles at the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Education in the Northern Territory, Queensland’s James Cook University and the University of New England in northern NSW. The public lecture is at 6pm on Wednesday 24 October in lecture theatre/room 422 at Charles Sturt University, 8 Tony McGrane Place, Dubbo. Please RSVP to Ms Christine Stewart on (02) 6885 7370 or send an email.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Dubbo will host a screening of the Freedom Ride 2011 documentary as part of a meeting of the Wiradjuri Elders Group and visitors from Orange this week. The documentary tells the story of last year’s Freedom Ride re-enactment which visited the University’s Dubbo Campus and Orange on the way from Sydney to Moree. The re-enactment traced the path of Charlie Perkins’ famous Freedom Ride bus trip in 1965, which helped break down segregation laws in Australia. Participants camped at the Dubbo Campus on their 2 300km, two-week trek through 21 regional communities. Community relations officer for CSU’s Centre for Indigenous Studies, Mr John Nolan, said Youth Connections staff from the NSW Central Coast, who organised the re-enactment, would address the meeting and distribute copies of the documentary. “The re-enactment participants met local elders and community members on their way through Dubbo last year and were given a warm welcome by the University, and the event organisers can now tell the local elders and community about their achievements,” Mr Nolan said. “Charles Sturt University’s regular Wiradjuri Elders Group meetings have helped forge a great connection between the University and the local community.”