UWS Open Day Supplement by Western Sydney University

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UWS: Share the Experience

Inside: »» Open Day 2012 – all you need to know »» In the Spotlight – Viktoria Bolonina on ‘The Voice’ »» Talking turtles – Murray River turtles in danger »» Fighting for Justice – Deng Thiak Adut, refugee to solicitor

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Here are some fun reasons to come along: » Back by popular demand – go on a guided tour of the Female Orphan School, Australia’s oldest public building. » Stroll down Hawkesbury Lane, showcasing the amazing programs at the UWS Hawkesbury campus, including the Hawkesbury Forest Experiment. » See the exhibition: Frank Hurley – Journeys into Papua. Experience the evocative images of one of the greatest Australian photographers of the 20th century. This touring exhibition features a fascinating selection of Frank Hurley’s images of his expeditions to Papua between 1921 and 1923. Hosted by the Whitlam Institute at UWS, free entry for Open Day visitors. » Get interactive – check out a working bee hive, do some food tasting, handle a snake, let some Medicine students plaster your arm, and see the outside broadcast van from the School of Communication Arts. » Visit the Gathering Place, an Indigenous cultural display. » Eat at one of the University’s many food outlets. » Enjoy live music and entertainment all day, as well as face painting, temporary tattoos and a petting zoo for any young visitors who come along too.

UWS Open Day Thinking about your career options, or which path you might take at uni? You’re invited to the 2012 UWS Open Day to see the University of Western Sydney in action and receive advice to help you make the right choices. Jacqueline Clements, Events Unit Team Leader, says Open Day is all about offering you “a taste of what the University has to offer”. Choosing the right course is all-important, so there will be over 70 presentations about the options available. You’ll have the chance to speak with current students, alumni and staff, as well as have one-onone consultations with careers advisors. There will also be information on scholarship and leadership opportunities. Admissions staff will be on hand to provide advice on courses, how to navigate the admissions process, and particularly the pathways into university. How would you know what direction to take, for instance, if you didn’t get the ATAR you needed for

the course of your choice? Our staff will be available to explain entry options to UWSCollege, which offers Foundation Studies, Diplomas and an English Language Program. “We’ll explain what to do if students are not successful in gaining entry to university the first time, or what the options are if they don’t feel ready for university and would like to ease themselves in,” says Robyn Causley, UWS Admissions Manager. You can familiarise yourself with the campus on one of our tours, and find out more about support services, scholarships and student exchange opportunities, which will really help you make the most of your time at uni. Open Day promises to be a

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Find your way Open Day 2012 will be held on Sunday 26 August, from 10am to 2pm at the UWS Parramatta campus. Visit www.uws.edu.au/openday for more information and to register.

Open Day is all about offering you “a taste of what the University has to offer” great day out, with visitors also able to enjoy free entry into Frank Hurley’s Journeys into Papua exhibition, visit the Female Orphan School, and see a showcase of research from the Hawkesbury campus, including access to take-home seedlings. To make the most of the 2012 UWS Open Day, you

can register online to receive updates on the event, preselect presentations to attend, and book in oneon-one consultations. Above all, Jacqueline recommends coming along and having some fun: “Bring your friends and just have a really good day!”

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Making the leap from school to uni Transitioning from high school to university opens up a world of opportunities. As the first person in her family to go to university, UWS Bachelor of Science student Rachel Ananin says she felt like she was “breaking new ground”. While the unknown was scary at first, she soon realised that there were plenty of UWS staff to ask for help, in person, on the phone, or via the library’s online chat. “Obviously, but all of the first year students are in the same position,” she says. One of the things Rachel found challenging at first was accessing course notes online and learning how to use the library. “My computer skills definitely improved as I tried to find and download university information and class notes online. You get the hang of it after a while,” she says. Joshua Henderson, now in his third year of a Bachelor of Computer Science, also found the lecturers at UWS very supportive. His first year offered more structure than he expected. “But you are responsible for your own learning and have to make sure you don’t fall behind in your course,” Joshua says. Having strived to achieve good marks in his first year, Joshua says, “I was putting quite a lot of energy into uni and I burned myself out.” As a result, his advice for new students is to “make sure you get a good balance of uni work and leisure”. Now in second year, Rachel says she is enjoying the university experience more now that it feels familiar and she has made good friends. “I know what I am doing in regards to classes, studying for exams, buying textbooks, using the website, taking notes and submitting assessment tasks, which has made me feel more relaxed.”

For more information on student support services at UWS visit www.uws.edu.au/ servicesandfacilities

“ ... starting university is a new experience and there are lots of things you don’t know.”

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Finding your feet Whether first year students are transitioning from high school, the workforce or family life, making the most of support services is an important part of getting settled into uni.

Into the newsroom Finding the right accommodation can be an important part of striking the balance between study and socialising. If living on campus appeals, there are residential colleges at most UWS campuses, or stylish furnished apartments at UWS Village on the Parramatta campus. UWS can also connect students with local off-campus housing, through the Living Local service, which offers searchable listings of accommodation such as share houses. Once semester has started, adjusting to the study load in your first year can be challenging. Joining UWS programs such as PASS (peer-assisted study sessions) can help students make new friends and study more effectively. The PASS program began in 2007 and now runs sessions on all campuses across 50 units of study which are seen as “difficult, challenging or have a high failure rate,” says Rosalie Goldsmith, coordinator of the PASS program at UWS. A student who has successfully completed the unit facilitates sessions by encouraging group work and

collaboration. Rosalie explains that PASS is not like a tutorial, but more like a formalised study group. “The idea is that the PASS facilitator is not providing answers but encouraging learning ... students can ask questions that they might be too intimidated to ask of a lecturer or a tutor,” she says. Rosalie reports that students not only love PASS but those who attend more than four sessions achieve a 10 to 30 per cent improvement in their marks. There are also other student welfare services if students are finding uni overwhelming, such as access to counselling sessions, prayer and meditation facilities and MATES@ UWS – a first year mentoring program that connects first year students to those in later years of study.

For more information on Student Support Services at UWS visit www.uws.edu.au/ servicesandfacilities

Student interns from the UWS School of Humanities and Communication Arts have experienced life in the newsroom through a collaboration between Television Sydney, UWS, and Fairfax Community Newspapers. TVS CEO Rachel Bentley says, “It started out of our mutual interest in involving and training students in broadcast news and Fairfax’s interest in TVS training their journalists on TV news presentation.” TVS News is a weekly wrap of community news from around the local region, filmed at the UWS Penrith campus. It includes 15 minutes of original content which airs on Friday nights on digital channel 44, and is also promoted and shown in full on the Fairfax Community News websites.

The program covers community reaction to events and how they affect local people and personalities. “Students are involved in internship placements in local Fairfax offices and they also contribute to TVS News through their journalism units,” Rachel says. “Seeing news come together each week under a strict timeline is a good learning experience for students, and UWS is the only university where students can experience and take part in real live television production, with a broadcast program outcome.”

Open Day 2012 will be held on Sunday 26 August, from 10am to 2pm at the UWS Parramatta campus. Visit www.uws.edu.au/openday for more information and to register.

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Rubbing shoulders with world leaders June 2012 marked the 20-year anniversary of the historic 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, and to mark this event, the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Edward Popa, studying a Bachelor of Law/ Bachelor of Business and Commerce (Advanced Business Leadership) at UWS, had the unique opportunity to help shape the world’s greener future attending the conference as part of the Australian Youth Delegation. Sponsored by the Future Leaders Aspire at the University of Western Sydney Program and Global Voices, a not-for-profit foreign policy organisation, Edward attended the summit with five other Australian youth delegates. Edward says the highlight of his “amazing” trip was being a few hundred metres away from world leaders as they addressed the conference. Prior to the trip, Edward completed an intensive research fellowship in Canberra, developing a research paper and opinion piece on the topic of sustainable cities and green jobs. His opinion piece was later published on the website The Punch. “The trip was fantastic and I learnt a lot about the United Nations, diplomacy and how it operates in different countries, and the action that goes on there,” Edward says. “I also learned about the importance of sustainability and was very happy to make some small contribution through my research.”

For more information on studying business at UWS visit www.businessatuws.edu.au

Sharing aspirations Tom Synnott and Tim Mann were good friends throughout their six years at St Columba’s High School in Springwood. However, when Tom chose to study a Bachelor of Business & Commerce (Advanced Business Leadership)/Bachelor of Laws at UWS Parramatta and Tim chose to study a Bachelor of Advanced Science at UWS Hawkesbury, they thought perhaps they might head in separate directions.

Both were lucky enough to receive a UWS Vice-Chancellor’s Leadership Scholarship, which provides $10,000 per year for up to five years, as well as access to the prestigious Aspire Leadership Program. Now halfway through their first year at UWS, Tom and Tim have remained close friends through their involvement with the program. UWS Aspire is a professional development and personal enrichment program designed to develop the leadership potential of gifted students, and this unique offering was central to their choice to study at UWS. “It was definitely a defining factor,” Tim says. “It provides huge networking and career opportunities.” The program includes a welcome retreat, mentoring groups, access to work experience opportunities, and workshops in professional skills, such as a recent communication workshop hosted by business leader and motivational speaker Avril Henry. “Instead of my uni experience being purely academically based, through Aspire I also have this extra element of actual community involvement and getting fully engaged with the university,” Tom says. As well as the professional benefits, the friends also get to hang out together. “Being in the same program, on the same scholarship, has really helped our friendship,” Tom says.

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“ It’s very competitive, but you have to do what you love.”

In the spotlight UWS Bachelor of Music student Viktoria Bolonina burst into Australian lounge-rooms with a star turn on Channel Nine’s hit TV show, ‘The Voice’, as a member of Team Delta. Viktoria, who was born in Russia and moved to Australia when she was 10, received a standing ovation from three of the show’s high profile judges, for her rendition of Nancy Sinatra’s ‘Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)’, which she originally performed for a recent university assessment. While being a contestant on the show taught Viktoria that the music industry is certainly “not all fairy tales”, she says that studying music at UWS helped her to prepare for her experience in the spotlight. “It’s an industry of art which is very competitive, and we have been told a lot of times at university that it is hard, and you have to just do what you love,” she says. Performing in front of “the whole of Australia”, meeting industry heavyweights and seeing how people respond to her music has left Viktoria “incredibly inspired” and helped propel her into the next stage of her career. “I am working on my own music at the moment. This is my passion – I want to give people a part of me.”

For more information on the Bachelor of Music at UWS visit myfuture.uws.edu.au/bmusic

Open Day 2012 will be held on Sunday 26 August, from 10am to 2pm at the UWS Parramatta campus. Visit www.uws.edu.au/openday for more information and to register.

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Road-testing careers During a 10-week paid internship as a producer’s assistant at the Community Programs Unit, which produces content for community TV station TVS, UWS Bachelor of Communication student Geline Garcia so impressed her employers that she landed a job as a Training Video Editor.

“I walked into the internship hoping to learn a few things about media production, and I walked out of it with a career path,” she says. Regardless of whether it is a course requirement or a personal choice, internships are a great way for students to gain practical experience in their chosen field. Kelly Whitney, UWS Jobs on Campus Coordinator, says internships can also confirm students’ study choices or point them in a new direction. “It really helps them consolidate their career decision and road-test potential careers,” Kelly says. Internships are also available offshore, with UWS partnering with major organisations in India, China and Nepal such as Telcon, Kunshan Yangcheng Lake Science Park and Nepali Times to offer select students the chance to work overseas. Last year, James Majarich, studying a combined Arts and Law degree, was awarded a $3,000 grant to work at Innovaid Advisory Services in Mumbai for eight weeks over the summer break. Since returning to Australia, he has been employed by the firm as International Liaison Officer. “The experience was fantastic, especially in terms of professional development, allowing me to undertake work of real consequence and participate in meetings with clients in a meaningful way,” James says.

Race across the red centre Next year, a team of UWS students will attempt to race the 3021 kilometres from Darwin to Adelaide through the harsh Australian outback in a solar car using just one kilowatt of power. It’s all part of the 2013 World Solar Challenge, and entering the challenge was originally the brain-child of UWS Mechatronic Engineering student Jay Manley, who had the opportunity to design a solar car as part of a final year group project. Greg Hatten, Business Liaison Officer for the UWS Solar Car Team, says Jay “saw it as an opportunity to create a real solar car”, which has grown into a student-driven project. One of the challenges is trying to engineer a solar car to race at highway speeds of around 100 kilometres an hour “on the power of a toaster”, says Jay, who has now graduated but continues to lead the project. Another is gaining sponsorship for the project, which needs funding of around $500,000 over four years.

A team of approximately 40 students and alumni, with supervision from an academic board led by Dr Ali Hellany from the UWS School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics, is now working hard to build the car they will race next year. Students from South Strathfield High School, chosen for their prowess in science, are participating in an educational link with the University that has them working with undergrads building the solar car. “We hope to make this a legacy project so that it lasts for years to come,” Greg says.

The team has already started construction of the vehicle’s body and chassis and plan to have a display at Open Day. For more information on the solar car project visit http:// www.uwssolarcar.com

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Deng Thiak Adut overcame a traumatic early life as a child soldier in the war-torn Sudan to study law and become one of the only Sudanese solicitors in New South Wales. Arriving in Australia in 1998 as a refugee after his brother smuggled him out of the Sudan, Deng learned English and finished school. Studying at UWS not only provided him with a law degree, it also offered the opportunity to provide legal support to members of the Sudanese community at the Blacktown Local Court, as part of the Pro Bono Students Australia program. “I enjoyed the University’s focus on advocating for social justice, encouraging students to take on broader community issues and continuing to help people in greater need,” Deng says. Proficient in Juba Arabic and Dinka, Deng and fellow students assisted clients by translating and explaining court processes, and providing referrals to legal centres and other support services. On top of an already busy schedule as a solicitor for Parramatta criminal defence firm Crimlaw, Deng has continued this volunteer work, initiating a weekly ‘Think Tank’ meeting with Superintendent Mark Wright, the NSW Police Blacktown Local Area Commander, and running a weekly workshop on Sundays for South Sudanese people appearing at court that week, particularly in civil matters. He says it brings him a great deal of personal satisfaction. “It feels good because it is my responsibility to my community and the Australian community in general,” Deng says. “I could never have become a lawyer in the Sudan so it is a great privilege to have achieved so much. I am grateful always.”

For more information on the Bachelor of Law at UWS visit myfuture.uws.edu.au/ lawcourses

Fighting for justice

“ I enjoyed the University’s focus on advocating for social justice, encouraging students to take on broader community issues and continuing to help people in greater need.”

Open Day 2012 will be held on Sunday 26 August, from 10am to 2pm at the UWS Parramatta campus. Visit www.uws.edu.au/openday for more information and to register.

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Best in class It didn’t come as a surprise to Associate Professor Roy Tasker’s students that he was named as the 2011 Prime Minister’s Australian University Teacher of the Year. After all, they were already very familiar with the way his teaching manner and methods had helped them understand even the most difficult scientific concepts. Associate Professor Tasker, from the UWS School of Science and Health, is known for his pioneering ‘VisChem’, a multimedia learning project. “By breaking the concepts down and helping them to visualise what’s happening at the molecular level, it opens them up to a whole new world and helps them to see how all those daunting, formal chemical symbols and equations fit together,” he says. Simulation and animation technology are just some of the

techniques Associate Professor Tasker uses to engage his students. “We have so much knowledge now about the different ways in which students learn, and it’s important as teachers that we don’t just think it’s about us imparting knowledge,“ he says. “Not only does a teacher need great knowledge and a passion for their subject, but they also need to have a rigorous, evidencebased approach to teaching and to be sensitive to students and their individual learning needs.”

For more information on Science and Health courses at UWS visit http://future.uws.edu.au

Talking turtles Changes in the ecology of the Murray River, such as major drying events, rising salinity levels, and common predators, are placing Australian native freshwater turtles in danger. Dr Ricky Spencer, from the UWS School of Science and Health, is leading a project to study the decline of turtles in the Murray River, and recently undertook a road trip through NSW, Victoria and South Australia to build local community partnerships to protect the turtles. “Foxes destroy about 95 per cent of nests, and they are killing the female turtles when they come out to nest as well,” Dr Spencer says. While the turtle population has absorbed these losses by living and breeding for up to 100 years, the adults are now also under threat, which, given their important role in the river ecosystem, could be catastrophic. “Turtles in the Murray River may still be common numerically but they are all old individuals and unless we boost recruitment and stop adult mortality, they are all going to die out at the

same time,” says Dr Spencer. “We are conducting field studies on the Murray River, but have also established seminatural ponds on the Hawkesbury campus to look at all aspects of turtle ecology and physiology.” It’s just one of the studies underway in the UWS School of Science and Health at Hawkesbury. “Studying zoology here means that you are actually in the wild almost every day,” says Dr Spencer. “Because we have such a great resource in the Hawkesbury campus, you are actually exposed to the research and get real opportunities to participate in these projects.”

For more information on research at UWS visit www.uws.edu.au/research

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Trainee doctor returning home Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student Rachel Farrelly, in her fifth year of studying Medicine at UWS, is returning home to Orange, the home of the Wiradjuri people, to undertake her final placement. Rachel will complete her rotation at the local Aboriginal Medical Centre, a place that has been a “source of inspiration” for her. Rachel had more interaction with the medical world prior to studying at UWS than most medical students. Her father is the Chairman of the Orange Aboriginal Medical Service (OAMS) and she grew up watching her mother care for her older brother, who became severely disabled after he contracted a viral illness as an infant. “My mother continues to be my inspiration as she cares tirelessly for him, and from her I have learnt the meaning of hard work, diligence and perseverance,” Rachel says. “These qualities are essential for me as I continue my medical training.” In the future, Rachel hopes to train in the specialty of orthopaedic surgery, with a focus on orthopaedic trauma and joints. “I hope that my story will inspire other Aboriginal people to consider pursuing a career in medicine as it is very rewarding to be able to contribute to the health of our people and our nation.”

Producing doctors for the west Having worked as a paramedic and firefighter, Dr Scott Reid obviously has a passion for helping people, and harboured an ultimate ambition to become a doctor. When the UWS School of Medicine opened in 2007, Dr Reid applied to become a member of the inaugural intake of the Bachelor of Medicine/ Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degree. With a wife, five children, and an established career, Scott was not your average school leaver. However, this didn’t deter him, and he graduated in late 2011. Having previously worked and lived in the western suburbs, Dr Reid was keen to study in the western suburbs too. “The course was aimed at recruiting people who have the west in mind, and who would probably continue to work in the west,” Dr Reid says. Juggling a demanding fulltime study program, part-time employment and fatherhood was never going to be easy, but Dr Reid says his “own support structures outside university” in his family, friends and firefighting colleagues helped him to find the balance and successfully complete his course. Now working at Nepean Hospital as an intern, Dr Reid will take up a residency next year, and plans to stay in the Greater Western Sydney region to practise medicine.

For more information on studying medicine at UWS visit myfuture.uws.edu.au/ medicinecourses

Open Day 2012 will be held on Sunday 26 August, from 10am to 2pm at the UWS Parramatta campus. Visit www.uws.edu.au/openday for more information and to register.

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Choose your own adventure UWS Bachelor of Music student Michael O’Donnell found himself in the middle of a student protest over tuition fees that developed into a political demonstration with over 200,000 people while on exchange at Concordia University in Montreal earlier this year. It’s the type of adventure he believes student exchange is all about, interacting with different cultures and learning first-hand.

“ step out of your comfort zone” The UWS International Exchange Program offers students the opportunity to study overseas at a partner university for a semester or a year. UWS has partnerships with universities around the world, such as the University of North Carolina, University of Helsinki, University of Notre Dame in Lebanon and the University of Seoul. Going on exchange provides students with an opportunity to “step out of your comfort zone”, says Phoebe Atanasova, who is studying a Bachelor of Business and Commerce, majoring in Hospitality Management. Phoebe enjoyed her first exchange experience at the University of Hertfordshire so much that she is spending another semester at California State University, Long Beach, studying public relations and communications. “You have to deal with situations that you are not faced with normally and you have no choice but to adapt to change. You also learn how to deal with people from different cultures, and you see the world,” Phoebe says. While Phoebe also experienced some trouble with a lost passport while on a trip to Barcelona, having the UWS Exchange officers to provide support was “amazing – they helped us so much”.

Combining work and study With classes, assignments, travel time, and the all-important social side of going to uni, balancing study with paid employment can often be a challenge for students. UWS Jobs on Campus aims to make this juggle a little easier. The University-wide initiative is designed to help students find paid, on-campus employment by connecting them with UWS employers who are looking to hire staff. Kelly Whitney, UWS Jobs on Campus Coordinator, says in addition to convenience, working on campus offers students the flexibility and understanding of employers during assessment or exam periods. Students simply register and submit their resume on the UWS CareersHub website. The Jobs on Campus team review the resumes, offering feedback, with students then able to apply for specific advertised positions. There is a variety of jobs available on campus, including retail, food and beverage, IT services, administration, communications and events, special programs and degree-relevant internships. Kelly says working on campus enables students to develop their skills and “gives them experience and a taste for the workforce”. “It’s really a win-win for the students,” she says.

For more information visit: www.uws.edu.au/careers/ students

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www.uws.e www.uws.edu.au/careers du.au/caree rs Jobs available on campus, include IT services, administration, communications and events, and degree-relevant internships.

Open Day 2012 will be held on Sunday 26 August, from 10am to 2pm at the UWS Parramatta campus. Visit www.uws.edu.au/openday for more information and to register.

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Learn online

with Pango High school students will have a new online destination to gain insights into university and a new perspective on learning, with the launch of Pango this month. Aimed at high school students in Years 9-11, UWS has created the interactive platform to house engaging content such as online forums, a free online tutoring service, online games, and blogs written by current UWS students. Sophie Ramage, the Integrated Marketing Coordinator for UWS Student Recruitment Services, says the website will “offer students an insight into university and can help them with the transition from high school to university”. Students can visit the online forums to have discussions online and upload content, while the games allow them to “engage with syllabus content in a way that’s a little different to how they are taught in the classroom”, Sophie says.

For more information on Pango visit www.pango.edu.au

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Dive in headlong There is a lot more to university than just studying. Whether you want to try your hand at Quidditch as part of the Harry Potter-inspired Quidditch Club, strive to make a difference in society through the Vision Generation Club, or be in with a chance to win 10kg of chocolate with the Chocolate Society, there is something for everyone at UWS. Being part of a club or society, whether its focus is sport, culture, politics, religion, socialising or something a bit wackier, is the perfect way to meet new people, try different activities and have some fun. During UWS Geek Week last year, eight clubs and societies banded together to

stage geek culture activities across five campuses. Self-confessed geeks did battle in light sabre fights, chess tournaments, and NERF wars, and enjoyed anime screenings, a jukebox and free slushies. And if none of those ideas float your boat, you can always start a new society. That’s what Katie Shield, president of UWS ChocSoc, and her friends did, motivated by a shared love of chocolate. All you need to make it happen is “the ambition for it to enhance student life”, Katie says. “You are going to get a lot more out of the university experience if you put up your hand and just get out there.”

UWS team win global supply chain competition Having being crowned the 2012 national winners of the Fresh Connection supply chain competition, a team of UWS students has travelled to Amsterdam to compete against high-ranking universities from around Europe and South Africa, emerging victorious. The Fresh Connection is an online training module in supply chain management which helps students learn to manage the dynamic interactions inherent in a supply chain to increase the return on investment for a business. Stephen Waters, Lecturer in the UWS School of Management, uses the simulation in class and mentored the students through the competition. Chris Fifita, Markie Lugton, Kate Smith and Ali Leghaei competed over seven weeks against 170 supply chain professionals and students from Curtin University, Queensland University of Technology and the University of South Australia to win the right to represent Australia in Amsterdam. “It was a fabulous team of students – they just went to that

next level in terms of the team effort being able to give them extraordinary results,” Stephen says. This achievement will also give the students “significant kudos” with prospective employers, with one of the students already landing a job as a logistics planning officer at Johnson & Johnson. “The Fresh Connection brings supply chain management from a theoretical perspective to the relevance of the real world, with managers having to make decisions and coordinate their activities with others in order to be successful,” Stephen says. “So I think it will significantly increase their ability to contribute to organisations early.”

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Gaining a professional edge For students seeking the career edge offered by a double or advanced degree, UWS is offering several new options in 2013. As the world becomes increasingly globalised, completing the new Bachelor of International Studies/ Bachelor of Laws over five years could open some exciting doors for graduates. The course has been designed for students who want to combine their interest in International Relations and Asian Studies with a law degree. Similarly, those with a preference for communications can complete the double Bachelor of Communications/ Bachelor of International Studies, also to be introduced next year. “A double degree gives graduates a broader education base,” says Robyn Causley, UWS Admissions Manager. “It’s more flexible than just doing a single degree with one specialisation.” Also providing students with extra challenge are the Advanced degrees, which are offered across

a range of areas including the humanities, Business, Sciences, Engineering, Computing and Nursing. The programs include advanced coursework, extension activities and research training, and are designed to develop future leaders in these fields. “These degrees offer leadership training, and mentoring with leading academics in the field, so students get the benefit of cutting edge developments in the discipline,” Robyn says. The Advanced degrees are open to students with an ATAR of at least 90. Bonus points, awarded to students living and going to school in the Greater Western Sydney region, are also taken into consideration when places are offered in these courses.

For more information about the degrees offered by UWS, visit the 2012 UWS Open Day or http://future.uws.edu.au

Taking an alternative route There’s more than one way to get into university, especially if you don’t get the marks you need for the course you want to do. UWSCollege offers a number of different pathways to degree courses at UWS, including the Fast Track Diploma programs, which provide one year’s advanced standing in the corresponding degree, and University Foundation Studies, which guarantee direct entry to a UWS degree upon successful completion. The extra time and support students at UWSCollege receive can also help to ensure their success at university, as Bianca Matthews, who completed the Diploma of Business and Commerce, found. Now specialising in global operations and supply chain management in a Bachelor of Business and Commerce, Bianca chose UWSCollege to get a fast-track into her degree with a year’s advanced standing. “I also liked that I would be studying the units that my friends would be at university, just with a little more guidance and support,” Bianca says. She found UWSCollege was a great place to study, with “fantastic” teachers, smaller tutorials, and units on academic skills giving her the grounding necessary for success.

“UWSCollege has given me the skills I need to not only pass university but to excel. I originally thought that going to college was a setback, but now I see it has accelerated my career path,” Bianca says. “In some cases, I am getting higher marks than students who went directly into university from high school.”

Engaging with the community The Social Engagement and Leadership Program (SELP), offered by UWS for the first time in 2012, provides students the chance to give something back to the community through a team-based program while building their management skills in a series of workshops. Matthew Howell, who is studying a Bachelor of Business and Commerce (Advanced Business Leadership), was first attracted to the program when advertising guru Todd Sampson spoke at the launch. Matthew was part of a team at UWS Sustainability at Hawkesbury, creating interpretation strategies for the River Farm project. Each project grouped international and local students together, to develop skills in crosscultural understanding. “That was the best part – we all had different perceptions and backgrounds, so we brought different ideas but we bonded really well as a group,” Matthew says. “The program has improved my leadership skills, and having to take a project all the way through to the end with a presentation and a report was really good. It was a fantastic experience that I would recommend to anyone.” Tara Pullen from the Gunargarang Rotaract Club, herself a UWS alumnus, had SELP students involved in some recent fundraising and awareness activities for International Day Against Homophobia. “This opportunity to work with UWS and get students involved is a great way to engage and promote organisations like Rotaract, and build on people’s skills and knowledge within the community,” Tara says. “It was very much a fun and friendly open opportunity to share experiences and goals.”

For more information on sustainability at UWS visit www.uws.edu.au/sustainability

Open Day 2012 will be held on Sunday 26 August, from 10am to 2pm at the UWS Parramatta campus. Visit www.uws.edu.au/openday for more information and to register.

An eye on the stars

Astronomical events such as the recent historic ‘Transit of Venus’ are capturing the public’s imagination, and with new high-tech facilities and an expanded program, the UWS Observatory at the University’s Werrington North campus is capitalising on the interest. Associate Professor Miroslav Filipovic, Director of the UWS Observatory, says over the last three months, a “phenomenal” 2500 visitors have passed through the doors. The Observatory has the largest and most powerful on-campus computerised telescope in Australia, and has recently installed a new 3D movie theatre to show moon landings and other celestially focused movies, which are proving popular with children. “This is a new generation of kids who are excited to be able to see things like the Saturn circles in full colour,” Associate Professor Filipovic says, adding that the UWS Observatory aims to show how exciting science can be. “We know that they will be our students in the future. It is now time to excite them.” The Observatory’s diverse program offers something for everyone – with visits from prominent astronomers, family astronomy nights, workshops for teachers and HSC students, and astronomy programs for Indigenous students. And it’s just the beginning – in the future, Associate Professor Filipovic hopes that a planetarium can also be established in the west. “Sydney is the biggest city in the world without a planetarium. Geographically we are located in a perfect place in western Sydney, so we are looking to expand our operations.”

For more information on the Observatory visit: www.uws.edu.au/observatory

Find your way to ... Open Day at Parramatta Sunday, 26 August 2012 At Open Day, we open up our Parramatta campus to future students who want to experience university life. Come and access one-on-one academic advice and attend presentations that provide information on course and career pathways as well as scholarships, exchange opportunities and student support services.