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Students' talents lead to international opportunities

3 December 2008

Sarah Meyer

Monash students Sarah Meyer and Sarah Lenthall will travel overseas next year after winning prestigious awards.

Bachelor of Arts (Honours) student Sarah Meyer will complete her PhD at Johns Hopkins University in the US as one of eight winners of the 2009 General Sir John Monash Awards.

The awards, presented last week at Government House in Canberra, fund students for three years of study at a major international university.

Ms Meyer will complete a PhD in public policy relating to health and humanitarian issues, with particular emphasis on the needs of refugees and people displaced by conflict, natural disasters, human rights violations and environmental catastrophes.

She aims to help develop more effective programs for dealing with these tragedies.

Ms Meyer is currently in New York as education officer with the American Jewish World Service. This is an international development organisation that seeks to alleviate hunger, disease and poverty in the developing world.

The awards, first granted in 2004, are the only national postgraduate study awards offered across Australia, covering all disciplines.

They are inspired by the life of Sir John Monash whose contribution to Australia extended from commanding the Australian Imperial Forces in World War One, through working as an engineer to develop the electricity industry and promoting public service and education.

Meanwhile, Monash Arts/Law student Sarah Lenthall will tour Gallipoli and the Battlefields of the Western Front in France after winning the Great Ocean Road Memorial Prize essay competition.

The competition was initiated by the Order of Australia Association (Victoria Branch) to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the conclusion of WWI in 1918 and the 75th anniversary of the construction of the Great Ocean Road. The Great Ocean Road was built over a 13 year period by returned servicemen as a permanent memorial to those who died fighting in WWI.

Ms Lenthall was chosen as the winner from a shortlist of four students for her essay on the topic 'Why did young Australians enlist in the Australian Defence Forces to serve overseas in WWI?'.

In addition to the battlefields tour, Ms Lenthall will also receive a return around-the-world airfare and $5000 spending money.

Ms Lenthall was presented with her travel prize at the Order of Australia Association's Annual Dinner at the RACV Club last week in the presence of over 200 guests.

The essay project is sponsored by the Order of Australia Association (Victoria Branch) and the RACV.