New scholarship for rural students
by
Charlotte Knottenbelt
A new scholarship to help students from rural areas study at the University of South Australia has been established thanks to a generous donation from a graduate.
The Don Hawke Memorial Scholarship will provide up to $25,000 a year for the full length of the recipient’s degree, covering fees, accommodation, living expenses and other incidental study costs.
The scholarship was made possible thanks to a very generous donation by
Jean Pearce, sister of the late Don Hawke.
Jean and her family feel the scholarship is a fitting memorial to Don, a
farmer from Kadina who was known for his kindness and consideration for
other people.
“Don was a generous person who valued education and went out of his way to help people, especially those who weren’t well off,“ Jean says. “He gave without expecting anything in return, so I think he would have approved of the scholarship.“
As
a young man Don was accepted to study law at university but faced a
difficult decision when his uncle died unexpectedly, leaving him to choose
between buying into the family farm or moving to the city to study.
Don ended up choosing the farm and stayed in Kadina, where he spent many years serving on the local council and as a member of Apex, until his untimely death in 1998 of a brain tumour.
Part of Don’s estate included a parcel of Kadina East land that he’d bought in the 1970s. It was the recent sale of that land which provided the funding for the Don Hawke Memorial Scholarship.
The scholarship will be administered by UniSA’s Alumni and Development office, with the first scholarship to be advertised later this year.
Alumni and development manager, Yvonne Clark, said that the University was honoured to be involved.
“This is one of the most generous donations the University has ever received,“ she said. “We greatly appreciate it and the difference it will make to rural students.“
In an effort to ensure that recipients are mature and able to settle into the requirements of university life, students who are awarded the scholarship will be required to have a gap year between leaving secondary education and embarking on their tertiary studies. For a full list of criteria, email yvonne.clark@unisa.edu.au