Foundation
Foundation
Foundation President – Mr Michael Robinson AO(' 55)
MR MICHAEL ROBINSON AO PRESIDENT OF THE SCOTCH COLLEGE FOUNDATION
A positive influence on the lives of all Scotch boys
The Indigenous Scholarship Fund has been the Scotch College Foundation’ s most recent major fundraising focus. An appeal to raise $ 5M was launched at last year’ s Foundation President’ s Dinner, and I can happily report that $ 1.5M has been committed to this worthy cause to date. This result has ensured that the recurrent costs associated with the program have been covered until 2020, and that the perpetual fund has seed funding of $ 500,000.
For the last 20 years, the Scotch College Indigenous Program has offered all boys the opportunity to experience and understand our country’ s indigenous culture as part of a contemporary Australian education.
Our unique Indigenous Program has three components:
1. Our commitment to include indigenous boys in the Scotch College community, through full academic and boarding scholarships;
2. The Indigenous Partnership Program, which teaches Scotch boys about indigenous culture through projects with local communities; and
3. Our longstanding partnership with Tiwi College.
The Scotch College Indigenous Scholarship Program has been making a positive difference in the lives of all Scotch boys since 2004.
Our innovative approach to community partnerships, academic support and mentorship enables Indigenous Scholarship students to develop the skills, resilience and confidence to walk in both worlds of contemporary Australia, making empowered choices in their lives.
It was wonderful that five indigenous boys graduated from Scotch in 2016 with their VCE, bringing the total number of students to achieve this end to 17. These five Old Boys will leave Scotch with thanks and appreciation for adding so much to the fabric of the school during their time here. Through the Old Scotch Collegians’ Association we look forward to hearing about their next chapters. Nine indigenous students are presently at Scotch.
A number of initiatives have occurred to support the school’ s Indigenous Program:
• Scotch College Foundation Board member Sam Hunt(‘ 92) chairs the Indigenous Scholarship Fund committee. Other committee members include Prue Brown, Sarah Furphy, David Knights(‘ 89), Louise Murdoch, Andrew Suttle(‘ 89) and Andy Suttle. Tim Shearer(‘ 85) and Rob Smith( staff) also serve on this committee.
• The Scotch College Foundation Australian Art Show was held at Scotch last September, raising $ 165,000, $ 40,000 of which was directed to support the Quickstart numeracy and literacy program at Tiwi College.
• A Scotch College staff indigenous scholarship has been created.
• One Scotch family has very generously donated $ 15,000 to allow the Tiwi College visit to Melbourne to occur in August for each of the past two years.
• The Class of 2016 committee raised $ 10,000 last September through a
school-wide casual clothes day and the sale of Indigenous Scholarship Fund wrist bands
• A raffle of fine art works was conducted in March, raising $ 15,000.
• The Campbell Edwards Trust, the Violet Norma Sanders Trust and the Sunshine Foundation are all supporting the Scotch College Indigenous Scholarship Fund.
• The Australian Indigenous Education Foundation generously supports the Scotch College Indigenous Scholarship Program.
• A number of Scotch Family members are very generously donating the shortfall($ 25,000 per student) between government funding and the contribution that the government makes, and the full costs of tuition and boarding fees associated with the program( approximately $ 200,000 per annum).
• Many other Scotch Family members are making one-off or regular contributions to the appeal.
I extend my heartfelt thanks to everyone who has supported the program to date. Your support will ensure that this successful and inspiring program continues to enrich our school culture and creates a lasting impact.
To learn how you can help to deliver this important program, please contact Scotch’ s Director of Development Tim Shearer on + 61 3 9810 4301 or tim. shearer @ scotch. vic. edu. au
48 Great Scot Number 150 – April 2017