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Welcome to the Roberta Sykes Indigenous Education Foundation website. Here you can learn more about the Foundation, the Scholarships, news on past and present Scholars, and how you can support the Foundation's work.

2019 Chief Executive Women & Roberta Sykes Scholarships to Harvard Kennedy School announced

The Roberta Sykes Indigenous Education Foundation, in partnership with Chief Executive Women (CEW), is offering three scholarships to leading international business schools for women managers of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander heritage.

This year's winners are:

Donna Bridge
Donna Bridge is a proud Yamatji woman from the Geraldton region. Since 2011, she has been the principal of Fitzroy Valley District High School, a K -12 school in the remote town of Fitzroy Crossing, in the Kimberley region of West Australia.
Donna has been selected to attend the Creating Collaborative Solutions program at Harvard Kennedy School.

Krista Dunstan
Krista Dunstan is a Principal Policy Officer at the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage WA and responsible for strategic land use management projects including divestment of the Aboriginal Lands Trust estate, the future of town-based reserves and remote communities in Western Australia and the development of native title policy.
Krista will be undertaking the Emerging Leaders program at Harvard Kennedy School.

Jacinta Elston
Professor Jacinta Elston is Pro Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous), at Monash University. She commenced this appointment in early 2018 after a leading the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advancement, education, and research at James Cook University for more than two decades.
Jacinta will be attending the Creative Collaborative Solutions program at Harvard Kennedy School.

Congratulations to Donna, Krista, and Jacinta! For more information about this partnership with CEW, read here.

2018 Roberta Sykes Scholarship Recipients

Left to right: Frederick Leftwich, Jordan English, Jarrod Hughes and Michael McMahon

The Roberta Sykes Indigenous Education Foundation is pleased to announce the 2018 recipients of the Roberta Sykes Scholarships.

Supporting Indigenous students for over 25 years, the Roberta Sykes Indigenous Education Foundation offers a number of students the opportunity to undertake postgraduate study at leading overseas universities each year.

This year's Scholars are: University of Canberra graduate Frederick Leftwich, University of Queensland graduate Jordan English, Monash graduate Jarrod Hughes, and RMIT graduate Michael McMahon. They are jointly supported by the Australian Government, the British Government through the Chevening program, London School of Economics and Denton Corker Marshall Architects.

Fred is a proud Aboriginal man from the Butchulla, Kuku Yalanji and Doomadgee communities and is also of Vanuatu heritage. He will undertake an MSc in Human Rights at the London School of Economics. He has completed a Bachelor of Social Sciences in Indigenous Studies from the University of Canberra.

A descendant of the Butchulla people of K'Gari (Fraser Island), Jordan will undertake a Bachelor of Civil Laws at Oxford. Jordan graduated with a combined Bachelor of Commerce and Law with First Class Honours in Law from the University of Queensland in 2016.

Jarrod will undertake a MSc in Social Policy (Research) at the London School of Economics. A Taungurung man from the Kulin Nation in central Victoria, Jarrod graduated with a combined Bachelor of Arts and Law with First Class Honours in Law from Monash University in 2014.

Michael, who is descendant of the Bundjalung people of North-East NSW, will undertake a Master of Arts in Architecture at the Royal College of Art in London. Michael graduated with a Bachelor of Architectural Design from RMIT in 2014.

British High Commissioner to Australia, Her Excellency Menna Rawlings CMG, presented the 2018 Roberta Sykes Scholarships in Canberra on 22 August, alongside Richard Potok, Executive Director of the Roberta Sykes Indigenous Education Foundation and CEO of the Aurora Education Foundation.

High Commissioner Rawlings said, “The British Government is immensely proud to support these two programmes that give Indigenous Australians the opportunity to study at some of the UK’s top universities. These scholarships are a great example of the modern partnership between Australia and the UK, as our two nations work together to develop the leaders of the future. We all look forward to seeing what extraordinary contributions these incredible scholars will make to Australia’s future.”