Women’s Weekly comp selects inspirational law student

A Charles Darwin University Law student has been selected as one of 15 young women semi-finalists in the Women’s Weekly magazine Women of the Future Competition.

Darwin-born 3rd year Bachelor of Laws student, Louana Uddon, could win up to $20,000 to fulfil her dream of helping young disadvantaged women to pursue their academic and professional goals.

Ms Uddon is no stranger to disadvantage, barely attending high school due to her living circumstances. She secured her first job washing dishes at age 14 to try to make ends meet before being offered an opportunity to learn skills in administration at a local law firm.

“Working at the firm I became interested in the cases involving kids who were subjected to similar situations like I had,” Ms Uddon said. “I wanted to become more involved and help them understand they had a choice to fight for justice for themselves.

“Inspired by the law, I took every opportunity on offer to gain experience in law firms before enrolling in courses that would provide me with a pathway to enrol in Law at CDU. The external course has been so flexible I have been able to continue gaining on-the-job experience and study wherever I was located, even sitting supervised exams overseas.”

Ms Uddon is passionate about spreading the message that those growing up in disadvantaged situations can achieve anything they wish, hoping to use the competition as a platform to spread her message and reach out to more people.

“My aim is to create a mentor program to support young people achieve their dreams,” she said. “Growing up I was surrounded by negativity about my future. I want to provide a service that offers information, resources and coaching to encourage an attitude in young people to want more for themselves, to realise ‘yes’ you can do it.”

If she wins, Ms Uddon will use the scholarship money to create a trust fund, with the long-term goal being that each recipient would provide further support to future trust recipients to create an ongoing legacy.

From the 15 semi-finalists there is a People’s Choice recipient and the judges will select the remaining seven scholarship recipients. Two winners and six runners-up will receive eight scholarships. For more information visit W: http://80thcomp.aww.com.au/finalists/louana-uddon,-28/

Voting for the competition opens today (Wednesday, 31 July).