Colleges connect with the world
Kate Hawkins from Menzies College, Bundoora campus, working at Lea Mirvana Children's Home in Nairobi, Kenya.
Community awareness is one of the major aims of college life at La Trobe University – not just among students on campus, but in the global community as well.
Last year ninety-five La Trobe students living in residential colleges travelled overseas in small groups to assist in development work. This year the numbers will swell to 150.
Projects in Thailand, India, Cambodia, Nepal, Kenya and Bosnia have included raising funds for building a school, work in orphanages, setting up a handicrafts shop and teaching English. Students have raised $30,000 for Cambodia alone.
'These programs develop employability skills for students,' says Deputy Director of Residential Services, Dr Michael Shortland.
'The students keep journals during their trips and tasks are assessed. Our aim is to build on students' needs. They like to get involved in down-to-earth developmental programs.'
Last year students made a presentation at a genocide conference in Bosnia. They spent three days at a village that had been 'ethnically cleansed'. The former population of 300 had been reduced to just 13.
The students went with the idea of building a new school. Instead, villagers requested a monument to their dead. The students raised $8,500 for its construction.
Dr Ron Adams, Director of Residential Services, led the group to Bosnia. He was moved by the experience, particularly when the villagers asked that the names of the La Trobe visitors be inscribed on the monument with their deceased relatives.
'We are helping our students connect with the world,' says Dr Adams. 'We are also demonstrating an ethical framework for good corporate citizenship that will help them and the University in the years ahead.'
More than one thousand students live in three colleges on the Bundoora campus – Menzies, Chisholm and Glenn – as well as Graduate House, University Lodge and Waterdale Apartments. About 15 per cent are international students and most of the rest come from rural Victoria or interstate.
The culture of volunteering crosses all of the University's campuses. Bendigo students have formed a community volunteering group called Ressie Angels. They kicked off the year by shaving their heads to raise money for the Leukaemia Foundation.