Celebrating the outstanding achievements of students and staff

On Tuesday 4 June the Melbourne Graduate School of Education celebrated the success of our graduate students, and the many achievements of our alumni and staff at the 2019 Awards Evening.

Before the formal part of the evening, a donor event was held to acknowledge the generosity of the Graduate School’s donors where attendees heard from Jenny Leaper whose Leaper Foundation has funded the new Research in Effective Education in Early Childhood (REEaCH) Hub.

The evening began with a welcome to country by Wurundjeri elder, Ron Jones marking this special occasion for the Graduate School, occurring just after National Reconciliation Week. During the evening there were presentations from the Doctoral Research prize winner Kate O’Connor on Remaking the university curriculum: what counts as knowledge in new forms of online learning and a presentation from Dr Lisa McKay-Brown and Chrystie Mitchell (from the Royal Children’s Hospital) on their In2School project which focuses on young people who have not been attending school due to their mental health needs and re-engaging them with education.

An impressive 83 awards were presented to 122 recipients, recognising a broad range of areas across education, demonstrating the Graduate School’s vision of equipping people to address the major educational challenges of our time.

The Dean of the Graduate School Dr Jim Watterston extended his congratulations to the recipients in his opening address.

“This evening allows us to take the time to recognise our students across all of our courses and the extraordinary contribution our staff have made over the years. We wouldn’t be the Graduate School we are today without the transformative teaching, research and community engagement from our students, academic and professional staff.”

The ceremony concluded with the Distinguished Research award being given to Professor David Clarke, who has made a significant contribution to the Graduate School throughout his career. His brief but heart-warming speech was followed by a standing ovation demonstrating what a respected and inspiring colleague he is to so many.

To view the complete awards listing and winners, please see the 2019 Awards Evening program.

All Awards Evening images are now available to download.