Any university student would be grateful for help in paying off their university debt. But for Isla Murdock, an education student at ACU, being selected for one particular scholarship has helped her in more than just financial ways.
The $10,000 scholarship funded by Dooleys Lidcombe Catholic Club at Lidcombe, is a 12-month Community Engagement Internship in which Isla has to complete 200 hours of volunteering and community service in several programs.
The club has been partnering with ACU for more than 30 years and funding scholarships since 2003, during which time they have supported 177 students. They currently fund five undergraduate scholarships at ACU, one postgraduate scholarship and one internship scholarship.
So far Isla, who lives in Baulkham Hills, is about halfway through her internship, and already she can see that it’s having a positive impact on her studies.
The main initiative she’s been involved with so far is the Ubuntu Mentoring Program, in which she and four other ACU students have been helping year 10 students from African and Middle Eastern backgrounds in Western Sydney plan their pathway through senior school and what they intend to do with their lives afterwards.
Every Friday they attend St Agnes Catholic High School, in Rooty Hill, and Mitchell High School, in Blacktown, to help the students with a different issue – for example, coping with exam stress, time management, and deciding on post-school options such as appenticeships, TAFE courses or university.
Ubuntu is an African word that loosely translates as “I am because we are”, a concept where individuals flourish by putting the needs of others first. Isla said this was main focus of the program.
Isla says the scholarship is helping in her in many ways. Image: Diocese of Parramatta
“Learning and growing doesn’t happen alone, it happens together, in a group, where you can bounce off each other,” she said.
As the only education student among the ACU student mentors, Isla has been planning the lessons, which she has tried to make fun and interactive, as well as help build relationships and confidence among the students. She has then been able to apply these skills in her uni studies.
“These Ubuntu lessons really focus on real-world situations and interactive activities to help them apply what they learn,” she said.
“It’s also really helped my delivery of lessons and everything I’ve been learning at university.
“I just finished my first placement at Cerdon College, in Merrylands, and I immediately saw the difference – I felt I had the confidence to jump right in and plan lessons and deliver lessons. I’ve found that really easy because I could draw on a lot of what I did in Ubuntu and use that throughout,” Isla said.
She also thinks it will be applicable to her career as a teacher in PE and studies of religion, two subjects she is majoring in.
“I love that PE tackles a lot of other really important community isssues as well as just sport. Same with studies of religion. You teach about life lessons, real-world situations that kids can take beyond the classroom and use throughout their life.”
Isla credits her time at Oakhill College, in Castle Hill, where she spent the last two years of her own schooling, for instilling in her the importance of faith “in leading your actions”.
“It taught me the value of service and compassion and looking after others,” she said. “And it made me realise that I want to live that on through teaching.”
Then, after the HSC, when she starting working as a teacher’s aid at Gilroy Catholic College, also in Castle Hill, these ideas crystalised further.
“The number one thing I want for my teaching career is inclusivity and creating a safe space in my classroom, and to really help kids and let them know that I’m here all the time, even though I only see them during six hours a day.”
Isla’s work in schools is an example of the Diocesan Pastoral Plan priorities of Mission, Formation, Listening, Dialogue and Discernment and Community, and the objective of being An Inclusive and Welcoming Church. Visit Synodality to learn more.
