#ruralstories I grew up in Warrnambool and consider it my home. My grandparents were dairy farmers in Peterborough and my extended family lives in Warrnambool and the surrounding region. I attended Warrnambool Primary School and Brauer College. I played for the Warrnambool Football Club and the junior Seahawks Basketball Club and was a volunteer surf lifesaver with the Warrnambool SLC. I was Deputy Youth Mayor of Warrnambool in 2013 and in 2014 was honoured to be selected as the Warrnambool Youth Achiever of the Year. That same year, I graduated as the dux of Brauer College and secured an offer for my dream university course: a double degree in Arts and Law at Monash University.
However, like so many young people from the country, there were several obstacles to me taking up that opportunity after high school. Financially, it was going to be very difficult for me to move to Melbourne and study. My mother had just stopped working due to the physical consequences of multiple sclerosis and the cost of living at Monash University was significant. Further, I didn’t have many connections in Melbourne. I didn’t have any networks or mentors to speak of. I was desperate to pursue my proposed course of study, but I was without the means and support to do so.
That was when Youthrive Victoria changed the trajectory of my life. After being encouraged to apply for a Youthrive Victoria scholarship by a wonderful teacher at Brauer College, I was fortunate enough to secure a three-year university scholarship. That scholarship had enormous beneficial consequences for me and my family. Principally, it allowed me to commit whole-heartedly to Monash’s academic environment and all the opportunities that it offered. But equally importantly, by attending Youthrive Victoria’s leadership camp and becoming a mentee in the organisation’s university mentoring program, Youthrive Victoria provided me with a brilliant network of like-minded peers from regional Victoria who were embarking on the same journey that I was. The organisation also provided me with mentors with experience of studying at Monash University who guided my academic transition. In these ways, Youthrive Due to this social, mentoring, and financial support from Youthrive Victoria I was able to realise my potential at Monash. That support from Youthrive Victoria led to me then being awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study at the University of Oxford, the first awarded to a graduate of the Monash Law School. Last year I completed a Masters in Law and Finance at Oxford.
This year I am working as an Associate to a Justice of the High Court of Australia, and I will soon return to Oxford to begin a PhD in Law with a focus on evaluating the impacts of climate change litigation. None of these incredible opportunities would have been possible without the support of Youthrive Victoria.
I am not exceptional. There are thousands of people who grew in rural areas who have benefitted from Youthrive Victoria’s programs and support and have gone on to create meaningful impacts in their communities and effect positive change. But there are many, many more young people in this State, and especially in its South-West, who could benefit greatly from Youthrive Victoria being empowered to offer even more support.
Having recently developed a mentoring program for rural year 11 and 12 students with Youthrive Victoria, Branch Out Mentoring, and volunteered as an Associate Director with the organisation, I have first-hand experience of this need. The Branch Out Mentoring program brings recent graduates from rural high schools who are pursuing tertiary education back into their old classrooms to mentor students and share their experience of making the transition to tertiary education. The program is now being delivered in many rural schools across Victoria and reaching hundreds of students. This is only one of many Youthrive initiatives which, with more financial support, could be scaled-up to meaningfully increase the aspiration and potential of young rural Victorians.
– Nick