News Archive

Three of the four finalists for WA Young Australian of the Year are UWA Law students – and they are all friends who support each other’s campaigns.

Michael Sheldrick , Akram Azimi and Holly Ransom are all members of WA’s biggest Rotary Club, Crawley. As President of the Crawley chapter, Holly is the youngest Rotary Club president in the world.

She is a dynamic social entrepreneur who runs a public speaking consultancy, a company to develop leadership skills in young people and an initiative that links women with inspirational female role models and mentors.

Michael is a community activist who started campaigning against poverty and who now manages an international campaign against polio. His letter about polio to the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, prompted her to meet him, after which she agreed to put the End of Polio campaign on the agenda of the 2011 Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting. The outcome was a $50 million contribution from the Australian Government and nearly $70 from other world leaders.

His best friend, Akram, is a dedicated mentor to young Indigenous people. Arriving in Australia 13 years ago from Afghanistan, Akram went from being ‘an ostracised refugee kid with no prospects’ to becoming his school’s head boy and topping its tertiary entrance exam results. Last year he co-founded a student-run intiative that raises awareness of Indigenous issues in universities.

Three of the four finalists in WA’s Australian of the Year are also UWA alumni.

Winthrop Professor Kadambot Siddique is an outstanding agricultural scientist whose mission is to feed the world through improved yields and crop management.

Professor David Joske has been Head of Haematology at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital since 1994. In 2001, he launched the community-based healthcare organisation SolarisCare Foundation, which treats 7,000 Western Australians cancer patients in Perth and WA every year.

The writing of Kim Scott, twice winner of the Miles Franklin award, has brought the Noongar culture to Australian and international communities. He was awarded his PhD with distinction from UWA and is now a Professor of Writing at Curtin University.

Published in UWA News , 26 November 2012