CELEBRATING 20YUGW AT ST ANDREW’S IN 2022

Last year we celebrated the milestone of 20 Years of Undergraduate Women with a range of events, activities, merchandise and philanthropic initiatives.

CELEBRATIONS BEGAN WITH AN OFFICIAL launch event on Saturday 26 March. Guests included Her Excellency, The Honourable Margaret Beazley AC QC, Governor of New South Wales; Professor Mark Scott AO, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sydney; Chair of Foundation, Niall Cairns; previous Principals; previous Chairs of Council; alumni, students and staff.

The Principal, Wayne Erickson, paid tribute to the many women and men who played a vital role in making St Andrew’s College an equal opportunity institution. The Governor emphasised the importance of understanding the past to avoid making the same mistakes in the future and congratulated the College on making the move to co-residency and on the appointment of Sasha James (Kovic) as the first female Chair of Council. The Vice Chancellor of the University of Sydney, Professor Mark Scott reflected on the nature of change and celebrated the occasion.

As part of the Launch, fresher Anna Hunt (Fr 2022) was presented with the inaugural 20 Years of Undergraduate Women Scholarship award. Anna, a talented soccer player, comes from rural and regional Australia and is studying nursing at the University of Sydney. We caught up with Anna towards the end of 2022 to talk about how her year has been and how the scholarship has helped her so far. You can read our interview with her on the following pages.

To mark the milestone, the College created a range of commemorative merchandise, from which 100% the proceeds would go towards endowing the new means-tested scholarship for undergraduate women. The College aims to raise enough to endow this new scholarship fund in perpetuity to support young women with financial need to attend the College for years to come. With an initial goal of $250,000, we are delighted that over $135,000 has been gifted, purchased and pledged to date thanks to more than 160 members of our community. The College will continue to raise funds for this scholarship in the future and invites the community to show their support by making a gift online via the website or by contacting the Advancement Team at the College.

In reflecting on the past twenty years, the College caught up with twenty Andrew’s alumnae who are doing great things in their own communities and industries. From musicians to teachers to lawyers and doctors, the range of young women we spoke to are inspiring and were generous with sharing their experiences and advice. The interviews are still available to read on the College’s website.

The College continued the celebrations throughout the semester, hosting events such as the Rosebowl Soccer Finals in August and the 20YUGW Mentoring & Leadership Dinner in September. To close out the celebrations, all students, parents, alumni and friends were invited to a Coffee Concert & Garden party in October which showcased the talents of our musicians and gave the community an opportunity to gather at the end of the year.