Community Education Student of the Year Winners Announced

Community Colleges Australia (CCA) has announced the winners in its fifth annual “Community Education Student of the Year Awards”.

The winners are:

• The Winner of this year’s Awards is Abbie Lee Russell, Atwea College, where she completed a Certificate III in Individual Support (Ageing).
• Highly Commended recipient this year is Patricia Gerhard, South Coast Colleges, where she completed a Diploma of Nursing.
• CCA presented an Achievement Award to Layla Bacayo, Riverina Community College, for her outstanding creativity in art and music.

The other five finalists in the 2021 Awards are: Kasey Lewis, Central Coast Community College; Tracey Hosking, Community College Northern Inland; Miranda Broekman, Tamworth Community College; Ethan Salo, TLK Community College; and Dawn Leach, WEA Illawarra. View details of all 2021 Award finalists here.

The Awards took place in an online virtual Zoom event on Tuesday 22 February 2022, attended by about 150 people from 50 different locations in the east coast of Australia. The Hon Alister Henskens SC MP, NSW Minister for Skills and Training, provided the introductory welcome. The Awards were presented by Austin Whitehead, Director, Training Sector Governance & Improvement, Training Services NSW, NSW Department of Education.

View a compilation from the Awards Zoom broadcast, featuring the winners and judge Vanessa Iles.

This year’s finalists have undertaken formal study with an Australian not-for-profit community education organisation during the period 1 September 2020 through 31 August 2021, with nominations submitted through their adult and community education (ACE) provider. View the “Honour Roll” of previous Community Education Student of the Year Award winners – 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Decisions on the Award winners were based on the judging criteria of career and study achievements; communication, team and leadership skills; and achievements in areas other than study and work. Judges were Vanessa Iles, Manager of the Reading Writing Hotline and Joneen Troup, recently retired Manager of Camden Haven Community College, with Dr Don Perlgut, CEO of Community Colleges Australia.

Funding for the 2021 Awards has been provided by the New South Wales Government.