Big Achievement in Covid Year for Edge Award Prize Winners

(Caption: Semester two Overall AUT Edge Award winner Jude Gair-Ah Siu (R) with AUT Student Employability Director Anna Williams)

By learning to push through self doubt, Jude Gair-Ah Siu went from strength to strength during her AUT Edge Award journey.

As Semester two Overall Edge Award prize winner Jude did over 120 hours of volunteering and 149 hours of leadership. She says she was humbled to receive the prize and proud of how much she'd grown and learnt through doing the award.

“Often the little voice in our heads tells us that we can't do something because we don't deserve it, we aren't confident enough, we aren't qualified enough. But in reality, we are more than enough... There are still times where I doubt myself, but now I am more aware that voice is probably wrong and I should give it a go anyway.”

Sarah Jaros, Semester one Overall Edge Award prize winner, also did an extraordinary number of hours of volunteering (200) and  leadership hours (300). She says she learned that being a source of goodness and channellling her strengths to help others was one of the most fulfilling pursuits she could undertake.

" With all that is going on in the world, and an abundance of fear-based and disheartening news stories on the TV, celebrating the good people are doing for their communities is a true reminder of the goodness of human beings and the resilience of the human spirit," says Sarah (right).

Impact of Covid

This year the award was a tougher ask than usual for students who faced huge obstacles trying to fulfil 35-50 hours of volunteering and 12-18 hours of leadership around lockdowns and social distancing.

“Covid made our students journeys much harder. Volunteering is very hard to do over Zoom and some leadership events didn’t even get off the drawing board as lockdown loomed and was then extended,” said Student Employability Director Anna Williams.

Despite this 80 students successfully graduated in early December, surrounded by family, friends and the Employability and Careers team. Three of the five industry prize sponsors also attended to personally present prizes and celebrate the students’ successes – MYOB, Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand and EY.

EY Campus Recruitment Senior Consultant Hannah Booth commented on how great it was to be able to turn up in person – something that would not be possible in many other parts of the world at the moment.

“This is a new sponsorship for us and we’re very excited to be here. You’ve all done an excellent job in what has been an incredibly challenging year.”

Resilience on show

Before presenting the awards Vice Chancellor Derek McCormack congratulated the graduates for their resilience and resourcefulness.

“Many of you had to organise and run leadership events on Zoom and Teams, deal with the stress of your academic studies online and maybe worry about friends and family far away. This shows immense resilience and resourcefulness that will not only make you a better employee but also enhance your ability to contribute to other spheres of life, family and employment.”

He pointed out that nearly 40,000 hours of volunteering has been completed across both awards. “That is the equivalent of one person working full time for 20 years.”

Anna says many students sign up for the award thinking it is going to be a box ticking exercise.

“Yeah, nuh. Instead it is an absolute journey of learning, knowledge, reflection and a building of self-confidence that makes you stand out in the crowd when you leave AUT.”

Winners of 2020 AUT Edge Award

• Overall Award Semester 1 – Sarah Jaros
• Overall Award Semester 2 – Jude Gair-Ah Siu
• Volunteering Award – Shaye Va
• Leadership Award – Nicole Camacho
• Personal Growth Award – Yuanfeng Zhong (Benny)

Winners of 2020 AUT Beyond AUT Awards

• Beyond Overall Winner Semester 1 – Mansi Mudgil
• Beyond Overall Winner Semester 2 - Siddarth Thyagaraj

Learn more?

Want to find out more about the AUT Edge Award or AUT Beyond Award? Email Beyond AUT Award here or AUT Edge Award here