By Stephanie Brown, Marketing and Communication Manager CUFA
CUFA and TSWG are excited to announce the winner of the Harry Zaphir Scholarship for 2014. Congratulations to Katie Preston from Queenslanders Credit Union.
With applications formally closing on March 1st 2014, CUFA’s Awards and Scholarships Committee teleconferenced on March 6 2014; to decide on the winning video submission and application.
The Committee is comprised of John Cottee, Manager at the Australian Credit Union Archives; Sciobhan Leahy, Marketing Coordinator at TSWG; Sue Zaphir, wife of the late Dr. Harry Zaphir and Corin Millais, CSR Strategist at Teachers Mutual Bank. The committee meeting was facilitated by CUFA’s Marketing and Communications Manager, Stephanie Brown.
After careful deliberation, the submissions were narrowed down to two finalists. Following further discussion and careful review of the selection criteria, Katie Preston from Queenslanders Credit Union’s submission was voted as the winning applicant.
The Harry Zaphir Scholarship is proudly sponsored by TSWG and was set up in 2013 in memory and in tribute to the late Dr. Harry Zaphir. Harry was a much loved member of the Mutual community; he was a valued supporter and advocate for CUFA’s Village Entrepreneur program. Harry was also a strong believer in harnessing the skills and talent of younger staff members, which he termed as ‘Bright Young Things’. The Scholarship is designed to award a ‘Bright Young Thing’ of the mutual sector and provide them with the opportunity of a life-time to give back to the international mutual community and assist those who are less fortunate through CUFA’s programs and projects.
The hopeful applicants were asked to provide a written submission answering a number of questions as well as provide a short video submission telling us about themselves, their goals, relationship to the mutual sector, and their commitment to making a difference. The video submission gave the applicants the chance to differentiate themselves and demonstrate their creativity. All applicants delivered interesting perspectives; which made for interesting viewing.
As the recipient of the Harry Zaphir Scholarship, Katie will travel to Cambodia for 7 days to assist CUFA’s Village Entrepreneur program. Before departing, Katie will fundraise $1,332 to support a Village Entrepreneur in Cambodia who she will then assist with the setup of their small business in Cambodia during the 7 days she is in-country. Whilst in Cambodia, Katie will have the opportunity to see CUFA’s projects firsthand and help other Village Entrepreneurs in their businesses. She will also have the opportunity to visit the amazing temples of Angkor Wat and learn about Cambodia’s amazing and at times, very dark history.
Katie said of the opportunity, “this is such a huge honour and I couldn’t be more excited. I’m so fortunate that Queenslanders Credit Union encouraged me to apply and that they are so supportive of the great work that CUFA do. I can’t wait to start fundraising and to meet some of the people in Cambodia whose lives are being transformed through the Village Entrepreneur Program. Thank you to TSWG for sponsoring such an amazing opportunity!”
Congratulations Katie!
Once again, thank you to all who applied. The Harry Zaphir Scholarship will be run annually with applications for 2015’s scholarship opening again in October 2014 – keep an eye out for this opportunity! Please note the submission date and application process will be provided in 2015.
Please take the time to view the fantastic video submissions for those who took their valuable time to record them, please click here, and remember to ‘Like’ those who you feel did a great job, to support the applicants.
