High achiever set to attend Y20 China Summit
A high-achieving postgraduate student has been awarded a scholarship that will take him interstate and overseas to meet with some of the world’s top diplomats.
PhD candidate Samuel Keitaanpaa has been selected as the semester 1, 2016 Charles Darwin University Global Voices Scholarship recipient and delegate to the Youth Delegation to the Y20 China.
Samuel will attend high-level meetings in Canberra and Shanghai, and receive a fully supported Research Fellowship, which will involve him producing two pieces of original research for publication.
With an interest in public health, Samuel completed a Bachelor of Pharmacy with first class Honours from CDU and said he was passionate about improving medicine delivery and support for remote communities, and reducing reliance on publicly funded health services in the NT.
“It is my goal to work with government policy makers to improve the medicine delivery and support provision to both Indigenous patients and the wider NT population,” Samuel said.
The Youth 20 (Y20) is a youth summit that brings together young people from the G20 countries to discuss issues closely related to the topics of the G20 Leaders’ Summit. The focus of this year’s conference is “Innovation and Partnership for an Inclusive World”. The major result of the Summit will be adoption of the Final Communiqué, which will be presented to the G20 leaders in September 2016.
As part of the program Samuel will have access to diplomats and officials from around the world and will be able to engage in private meetings to gain practical experience in international policy.
“Participating in the Y20 delegation will enhance my strengths and give me additional skills to use in the NT to tackle how economic inequality and cultural differences lead to poorer health,” he said.
He said that working closely with other delegates from diverse backgrounds and experiences would provide an insight into how policies were developed transnationally and how Australia worked with other countries for mutual and global benefit.
“Strategies developed as part of the Summit could help to improve the health and economic growth of disadvantaged communities,” Samuel said.
As part of the scholarship Samuel will travel to Canberra in May and to the Global Voices Australian Youth Delegation to the Y20 China Summit in Shanghai in July.
He was named winner of the Pharmacy Student of the Year 2012 (NT) and was Awarded the Pharmacy Guild of Australia (NT Branch) Ian Marshall Award for Outstanding Commitment to Pharmacy Practice. He is currently completing his PhD focusing on the barriers to implementation of smoking cessation in Indigenous Australians.
Students interested in applying for the semester two scholarship should contact Janet Russell on T: 08 8946 6044.