A few weeks ago, AVCAT CEO Joan Hughes and AVCAT Chairman Major General Bill Crews AO (Ret’d) travelled to Adelaide for the Presentation of the South Australian Long Tan Bursaries and Sponsored Scholarships.
A special thanks to Deputy Commissioner of DVA South Australia, Ms Janice Silby, and to her Adelaide DVA team for coordinating and hosting the event.
The speech from guest speaker and past Long Tan Bursary recipient, Sacha Reason, was a definite highlight of the event. Sacha is an incredibly talented young woman who was awarded a Long Tan Bursary in 2015. Prior to commencing her Doctor of Medicine, Sacha completed a Bachelor of Biomedical Science.
In her speech, Sacha spoke proudly of her father’s military service in Vietnam. She described the Long Tan Bursary as a legacy of the sacrifice made by her father and all the other Australian veterans who served in Vietnam. Regarding the Long Tan Bursary, Sacha said that it enabled her to purchase the textbooks necessary for her course and also to visit her family and spend time with her loved ones during the university holidays. Sacha said “the books, the coffee and the flights home – all of it helped keep me sane in the crazy world of medicine. I cannot begin to express my gratitude to the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, who sponsor the Long Tan Bursary, for their support of me. It really did make the world of difference.
At the ceremony, the following list of 2017 Long Tan Bursary recipients were acknowledged:
Naomi Burt
Darren Halsey
Nathan Peacock
Carl Watson
Additionally, and thanks to the ongoing support of TPI South Australian and the Vietnam Veterans’ Association of Australia (South Australia), the following three students were awarded sponsored scholarships:
TPI South Australia Scholarship
Shane Laidlaw
Alex-Marie Howard
Darryl Knapp Memorial Scholarship sponsored by VVAA SA
Rachel Crook
Congratulations to all of our 2017 recipients from South Australia – we are so proud of all of you and we look forward to being a part of your tertiary journeys over the next three years.
Lastly, but by no means least, thank you to the generous sponsors who continue to support our young people. Despite South Australia being a small state population size, it undoubtedly has a big heart when it comes to the generosity of the ex-service community.
