MP congratulates Sunshine Bursary recipients
15 September 2008
Jenny Tran, Bill Shorten and Trudy Ryall.
The educational achievements and aspirations of two Vision Australia Further Education Bursary recipients were recognised recently in Essendon, Victoria, with a visit from Federal Member for Maribyrnong MP Bill Shorten.
The two 2008 Sunshine recipients, Jenny Tran and Trudy Ryall, were given the chance to talk to the local MP about their studies and demonstrate their new adaptive technology provided by the Bursaries.
MP Bill Shorten asked to meet the two Vision Australia clients from his neighbourhood to congratulate them and learn more about their studies and the bursary.
Also present were staff members Chris Edwards, Manager Service Partnerships and Brian Hewat, a visiting teacher from our Essendon centre.
Highlighting the importance of the Bursaries, Chris Edwards said "Vision Australia is committed to ensuring that anyone who has the ability to enter further education and improve their chances of gaining employment shouldn't have the cost of the much-needed assistive technology as a barrier. For me, it is all about addressing the disturbing statistic that 69% of people who are blind or have low vision are unemployed."
Vision Australia's Further Education Bursary, which aims to assist clients who would not otherwise be able to afford adaptive technology, has given over 150 awards since 1996, providing students who are blind or have low vision with the opportunity to participate in further education.
For Jenny Tran, who has aniridia, the Bursary means assistance with her studies in Information Technology at Victoria University. The bursary will equally help Trudy Ryall, who has retinitis pigmentosa, in her studies in Companion Animal Services (Certificate III) at North Melbourne Institute of TAFE.
Applications for the 2009 Further Education Bursary Awards are open until 10 November 2008.