Edified Energiser Grants – Co-creating a Positive Impact on the Education Experience of Students Through Industry Project Funding and Support

Dr Aleksandr Voninski¹

¹Edified, Sydney, Australia

This session will focus on how service providers and the education industry can positively support the efforts of student service professionals to provide opportunities that impact and have influence on the education experience of both international and domestic students. Funding allocated for student-led projects has never been more at risk across our universities. The Edified Energiser Grants program was created to energise students and recent graduates working to improve education across local communities, with a focus on projects that positively support safety, health and wellbeing as well as women and gender equity opportunities. Over $30,000 in grants have been awarded over the last two years. The grants have helped support a wide range of student-led projects on and offshore, from improving female health and wellbeing across Nigeria and Kenya, to water sustainability and indigenous education outreach in the Philippines, VR training for people with autism in New Zealand, to virtual internships that seek to improve Australian youth unemployment in regional areas. Opportunities for collaboration on micro-financing to kick start student-led ideas and to get projects off the ground can have a lasting impact on the education experience of our students. This session will highlight the views of grant recipients, student service professionals, and education industry advocates that seek to create change through projects that have impact. Increased opportunities for our students to pro-actively engage can positively impact students’ propensity to recommend Australia and New Zealand as a welcoming and enriching destination to study, work, live and grow.

Biography:
Aleksandr (Alek) is Partner at Edified, an Australian-based Education expert consultancy group, and is the Client Relations manager for ETS TOEFL for the Australia, NZ and the Pacific region. He has held senior positions within International, External Relations, and Strategy functions at UNSW Sydney, where he was Executive Director (International) for a decade. Alek has also previously held positions at UTS, and Study Group, as well as leadership positions in the AUIDF and the Australian Go8 International Directors forums. Alek recently completed a Doctor of Education focusing on international education and student employability at the University of Southern California, and holds a Masters of International Law from the University of Sydney. He first came to Australia as an international student in the late 1990s.