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A decade of supporting women to study at UWA was celebrated with the annual Centenary Trust for Women luncheon in Winthrop Hall.

Corporate lawyer and UWA law graduate Sarah Beshar brought with her from New York impeccable credentials as the guest speaker.

She grew up in a family in Perth which championed the transformative benefits of a good education. This photograph of Ms Beshar with her lawyer husband Peter Beshar, their youngest daughter Sophie and both the current and a former President of the United States is evidence of how far the road that starts with a good education can take you.

Ms Beshar's family has recently established a UWA scholarship for women to become teachers.

The Centenary Trust for Women Dr June Jones Masters Scholarship in Education will be awarded for the first time this year and for the next four years to support a woman who wants to take a Masters teaching degree at UWA but who is experiencing financial hardship. It is named in honour of Ms Beshar's mother.

Dr June Jones, a graduate of UWA , was the inaugural Chair of the Centenary Trust for Women for five years and a member of the UWA Senate for 13 years.

She is one of WA's most respected educators and was awarded an Order of Australia for services to education and a UWA Honorary Doctorate in Education in 2007.

The Centenary Trust for Women was established in 2002 to support and encourage women facing financial difficulties while studying at UWA .

It provides advice, financial or other assistance where education opportunities are limited because of distance, economic difficulties, cultural differences, disability or responsibility for the care of children, the ill or the elderly.

CTW promotes positive attitudes towards women in education by developing programs to increase public awareness of relevant issues and by raising funds and commissioning research.

The Trust's goal, evident in its name, is to raise at least $1 million by the University's Centenary year, 2013.

The photograph of the Beshar family and the two Presidents was taken at a private dinner honouring Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. Sophie looks set to follow in her mother's highflying footsteps. Ms Beshar said her daughter invited President Clinton to speak at her high school graduation ceremony in 2015, "informing him that because she had given him so much notice, she hoped he would fit it into his schedule!"

Published in UWA News , 23 July 2012