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December 12, 2014

Summer 2014 graduations

UOW will next week play host to about 15,000 people (of whom 3,500 will be graduands) expected to visit the campus from Monday 15 to Friday 19 December for the summer graduation season.

Thirteen ceremonies will be held over the course of the week on the main campus – including four night-time sessions at 7pm on 15, 16, 17 and 18 December.

There will be the usual good range of human interest stories of graduands achieving remarkable outcomes with some overcoming a range of obstacles to achieve their degrees. [Keep in touch with UOW media for such stories as the week progresses].

Among the range of possible photo/filming opportunities are:

·  The CEO of the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), Lynne Williams, who will receive an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree (ceremony 1).

·  Rachael Kalmanidis who is the current holder of the Jack Goldring Memorial Scholarship. The third-year law student wants to get involved in advocacy for minority groups, especially people with disabilities. Rachael, a type 1 diabetic, knows first-hand the stigma that can be attached to disabilities, and is passionate about campaigning for equal opportunities for all (ceremony 2).

·  Benjamin Armstrong and Stephen Henry are the first Indigenous Australians to graduate from the Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery (ceremony 4).

·  John Morrison to receive an Emeritus Professorship in the same ceremony with the 400^th graduand of the Environmental Science degrees he co-ordinated (ceremony 4).

·  Kate Swafter who will receive a Master of Science in Dementia and Kate herself is living with a younger onset dementia. She is a prolific contributor to advocacy work in Australia and internationally (ceremony 5).

·  Susan Peatman is 54 and is the first in her family to attend and graduate from university. She was determined to go to university for herself and to set an example for her family (ceremony 10).

·  Sovaia Sisi Coalala is an Australia Awards Scholarship holder from Fiji who is totally blind. She has undertaken a Master of Commerce-Master of Strategic Human Resource Management degree (ceremony 10).

·  Mr Tim Ellis will receive an Honorary Doctor of Science degree. He is an entrepreneur and IT industry veteran (ceremony 11).

·  Alexandra Quinn will receive her PhD for her degree looking into the benefit versus risk associated with doing precision x-ray image guidance of breast radiotherapy patients treatment. Her work has been widely published in international journals (ceremony 12).

·  Alfred Tawirirana Chidembo started off his schooling in a humble, remote village in Zimbabwe and walked at least 5km barefoot to school. He is now getting his PhD in the area of supercapacitors and alternative energy storage devices (ceremony 12).

·  Daniel Tolhurst is the first ever Bachelor of Medical Mathematics (Honours) student to graduate (ceremony 13).

Note to media: The morning ceremonies begin at 9.45am, the afternoon ceremonies begin at 2.30pm and evening ceremonies held at 7pm. Filming and photography is best done in the half hour before the ceremonies, or directly afterwards. Venue: All the ceremonies will be held at the University Hall. Graduation ceremonies usually last for about one and a half to two hours.

Media contact: For information about other potential photo/filming opportunities during next week contact Bernie Goldie on +61 2 4221 5942 or +61 2 412 454 124.