Scholarship to take CDU student to Fiji

A Charles Darwin University student is preparing to move to Fiji where she will live, study and work next year courtesy of the New Colombo Plan Scholarship Program.

Bachelor of Applied Social Science student Katie Hicks said she was delighted to learn that her application for the prestigious scholarship had been successful.

“I’m busy getting my affairs in order as part of my preparations for the move to Fiji in January,” Katie said.

“I’ll spend the first semester studying linguistics at the University of the South Pacific and the second half of the year as an intern with a non-government organisation.

“There’s a lot to do. I’m organising my internship, which will be in the field of community development, working with Indigenous people in Fiji.”

Katie was in Canberra last night when Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop released the names of 105 successful scholarship recipients.

“I arrived here (Canberra) on Sunday for a three-day training program and for the dinner where the formal announcement was made.”

Katie was one of two CDU students to receive scholarships capped at $72,500 each. The other is Anna McKenzie, who is enrolled in a Bachelor of Primary Teaching and will relocate to Hong Kong in September. 

Last night’s announcement follows an August announcement in which CDU received $468,050 in government funds to support more than 100 students to take part in programs in more than a dozen countries next year.

The New Colombo Plan is an Australian Government initiative, which involves a scholarship and grants program that allows thousands of Australian undergraduates to study and work in more than 30 host locations throughout the Indo Pacific.