Rotary Club of Katherine Inc
(Established 1977)
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Phillipa Walters Bursary Award
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Brian Walters has lived in Katherine for many years and is a past member (now honourary member) of the Rotary Club of Katherine. When Philippa died of cancer, Brian established the Phillipa Walters Bursary. Philippa wanted to help young people get to University, but she knew that studying at University was expensive. Brian donated some money to the Rotary Club of Katherine and every year, the club raises funds through community events in order to give $3000 to the bursary recipient. A huge vote of thanks goes to a local family who have donated $15,000 to the Phillipa Walters Bursary Award in 2019 - this will cover the cost of the Bursary for the next 5 years.
The 2020 recipient was Anesu Jesch. Anesua attended St Joseph's College.
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Rotarians Chris and Pamela travelled to Darwin to present Anesu with a computer, backpack and the the CDU books she needs for her course. After the presentation at Harvey Norman, Anesu wrote this “ I would like to thank you (Rotary) for the Phillip Walters Scholarship given to me to help buy the resources I needed to help start university. It helped a lot as l managed to get textbooks and a laptop to help with my studies. I will be starting my bachelor of science in biomedical science on Monday and l promise to not disappoint :) Once again thank you for giving me this opportunity, l greatly appreciate it and will use it to the best of my ability.”
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In her application Anesu explained that she has been a school captain, in the Tournament of Minds Finals in Darwin, Duke of Edinburgh silver medal. She speaks a couple of languages and is interested in sport and music. She has been working hard at Woolies to help fund her studies.
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John Leo and Alan Bennett 2013
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n 2012 we awarded the scholarship to Katelyn Talbot who undertook a degree in physiotherapy. Katelyn also did us the honour of speaking at one of our meetings and helped us serve our takeaway food at the 2015 Katherine Show.
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In 2013 Alan Bennett was the recipient. Alan studied for a bachelor of engineering at Flinders University.
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The 2015 recipient was Alex Elem.
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In 2016/2017 we split the bursary between Muriel Scholz and Jorjiilou Reyes. Jorjilou said " The scholarship helped significantly with my transition from high school to university. I had to move from the outback Katherine to urban Melbourne, which meant a lot of money to be spent on food, winter clothes, rent etc. Since i did not have a job in Melbourne and my mum was a single mum, this amount of money contributed to my savings for the semester. I can't thank the Rotary Club enough for this genorosity"
Muriel is studying for a Bachelor of Science at CDU. We were delighted tor read about Muriel who, in a very short space of time, has notched up some amazing adventures. We see Muriel making a huge impact on our world. In 2017 travelled to Africa where she volunteered to work in in St Lucia as part of the Volunteer Eco Students Abroad program. She also got up close and personal with massive crocs, hippos and fierce wild cats, worked with local kids and helped to build a home,
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Katelyn Talbot and family 2015
Murel Scholtz, Rotarians and family 2016
Jorjilou Reyes, Rotarians and family 2016
Previous recipients in the last few years have included Alan Bennet; Alex Barker; Alex Elem; Jorjilou Reyes; Katelyn Talbot; Muriel Sholz and Anesu Jeche.
