Archive for the 'Community' Category

Innovative business plans for establishing a tailored menswear business and a pizza restaurant and café were the two winning entries in the inaugural North West Region Business Studies Competition for senior school students.

Sponsored by the UNE Business School at the University of New England, the competition aims to stimulate entrepreneurial activity in the region through providing early experience to young people.

Shaun Dyball (pictured here, right) from Calrossy Anglican School in Tamworth won 1^st Prize with his plan for “Men’s Business”, a company designed to provide men with tailor-made but relatively inexpensive clothes.

“I decided on this project because of my interest in fashion,” Shaun said, adding that he’d like to try and make his plan a reality one day. In the meantime, he’s preparing for the Higher School Certificate examinations next year and looking forward to business-related studies at university. “I think the competition is a good initiative,” he said. “Entrepreneurs are often young people with new ideas.”

The winner of the 2^nd Prize, Alex Malcolm (pictured here, left) from Duval High School in Armidale, also has a hankering to see his business plan become a reality. Called “Mal Paccino’s”, his project exploits what he sees as an opening in the market for an all-day pizza restaurant / café.

Alex’s proud father, John Malcolm, who holds a Master of Business Administration degree from UNE, visited the University last week for the award presentation ceremony. Also at the ceremony were Business Studies teachers Stacey Elston from Calrossy Anglican School and Patrick Turley from Duval High.

In presenting the award certificates and the cash prizes, Professor Alison Sheridan, Head of the UNE Business School, praised the two students for their application of academic skills in an extracurricular activity that required them to meet deadlines while working creatively. “Such development of business skills in young people gives us optimism for the future,” Professor Sheridan said. “We look forward to the further development of the competition in the years to come.”

She thanked Tim Polson, Business Studies teacher at Armidale High School, for both initiating and coordinating the competition. Mr Polson thanked the University for its sponsorship, and said he was pleased with the outcome of the competition’s first year. Explaining that it had been designed to enhance the existing curriculum rather than adding additional work for staff and students he said that he, too, was looking forward to its future development.

More than 700 students from 32 schools throughout northern NSW became chemists, forensic scientists, pharmacists, nurses, physiologists, computer programmers and engineers for a couple of hours last week when they immersed themselves in science at the University of New England.

They were taking part in the University’s 10^th annual “Science in the Bush” event – a program that enables school students to explore the principles and applications of science in UNE’s research laboratories.

For the second year, “Science in the Bush” extended over two days – the first day (Thursday 8 November) for students in Years 7-9, and the following day for those in Years 5-6. It was the first event for this year in the University’s community engagement initiative Far Out Science, funded through the Australian Government’s “Unlocking Australia’s Potential” program.

The three-year Government grant has enabled “Science in the Bush” to extend its reach by subsidising students’ travel to UNE. “They came from schools as far away as Grafton, Coffs Harbour and Bingara,” said Dr Michelle Taylor, one of the UNE organisers. “Some of them had to be up at 5 in the morning to get here.”

In the chemistry laboratory, the students investigated the spectra of various chemical compounds, and made slime and nylon. Forensic chemistry took them into a crime scene with the examination of fingerprints and tell-tale fibres. Elsewhere they programmed a robotic explorer and trained a virtual rat, analysed the acoustic properties of dog vocalisations, made a hand lotion, observed the voluntary and involuntary control of their muscles, and investigated the structure and strength of beams used in construction.

“It’s really important that students get a good idea of what science is all about,” Dr Taylor said, “and that even the basic sciences such as physics and chemistry are exciting if you really get involved in them. It’s also important for them to visit a university campus and realise that it’s a place where anyone can aspire to study.”

The feedback from participants this year – as in previous years – confirms that the event is successfully transforming students’ perceptions of both science and universities.

The other components of Far Out Science this year are “Consumer Science” events that, with the help of a grant from the NSW Department of Trade and Investment, will take science out into local communities. UNE scientists will be entertaining people with practical experiments in the science of everyday life on Saturday 17 November at Tamworth Shopping World, and on Saturday 1 December at Armidale’s Centro shopping centre.

On Friday, the winners of a competition that invited school students to design a logo for Far Out Science were presented with their prizes. The winner – Lily Scales – and runners-up – Niamh Evans and Tara Bourke – are all from Ben Venue Public School in Armidale. Lily said she felt “very proud” that her design was being used on T-shirts (as pictured here), posters, and other items connected with the events.

A large-scale biological, medical and social study of mental health in rural and regional Australia has just begun at the University of New England.

The study is being conducted through the Collaborative Research Network (CRN) for Mental Health and Well-being in Rural and Regional Communities, funded with the help of a $4.8 million grant from the Australian Government and launched at UNE earlier this year.

Known as ROMHAR (“Rural Outreach Mental Health and Resilience”), the interdisciplinary study will collect data on a wide range of variable factors associated with mental health in the general community.

The project leaders, Professor Chris Sharpley and Associate Professor Myfanwy Maple, said that the incidence of depression and suicide was higher in rural than in urban communities, highlighting the importance of this kind of research.

The UNE researchers will ask voluntary participants in the project to answer a detailed questionnaire, and to donate samples of saliva and blood for laboratory analysis. “We’ll be trying to identify molecules that might be reliable indicators of depression,” said Dr Linda Agnew, a cellular immunologist working at UNE. “This will enable us to test several current hypotheses linking genetic, immunological and endocrinal data with some of the medical, psychological and social factors involved in mental illness.”

The researchers need to collect information from people who are very healthy through to those who have experienced mental health difficulties. “Therefore, anyone in the community who is over 18 years of age is welcome to participate,” Dr Maple said. “It is particularly important that we include people with good mental health as well as those who have had difficulties.”

The project is being launched in New England, but there are plans to extend it to rural sites in Victoria,
Queensland and Western Australia.

The Government funding has enabled the recruitment of a number of researchers and the purchase of new equipment at UNE, and the development of collaborative links with other universities. Professor Sharpley said that the multidisciplinary nature of the data to be collected would make the ROMHAR study unique in Australia.

People interested in participating, or in obtaining more information on the study, can contact the Project Administrator, Kerri Fitzpatrick, on (02) 6773 3700 and leave a message, or e-mail ROMHAR@une.edu.au.

UNE Landcare (UNEL) is calling for volunteers to help plant 1,500 native grass, shrub and tree seedlings along Dumaresq Creek near SportUNE on Sunday 11 November.

Sunday’s working bee will be part of a campaign in which UNEL is aiming to plant 10,000 native trees and other plants along Dumaresq Creek in a series of such community planting events over the next six months.

UNEL has received a Community Action Grant of $18,750 from the Commonwealth Government for the planting progam.

“These plantings will help stabilise the creek banks, provide food and habitat for wildlife, increase biodiversity values on campus, increase the area of native vegetation at the University and – we hope – engage UNE staff members and students,” said Southern New England Landcare’s Ellen Nyberg, who coordinates UNEL.

“By participating in the ‘10,000 Trees’ campaign,” she said, “you can leave a leafy green legacy at UNE for students, staff members, visitors and wildlife to enjoy in the years to come. To get an idea of what the plantings will look like in five to ten years, take a look at the existing planting on the south-west side of the creek.”

Planting on Sunday will begin at 9 am and continue till 1 pm. A free barbecue lunch and morning tea will be provided for volunteers. Everyone is welcome to be involved.

Ms Nyberg explained that the planting program was the second stage of the Campus Creek Cleanout project, a partnership between UNEL, UNE’s Facilities Management Services (FMS) and the Armidale Urban Rivercare Group, which began early this year with work on the removal of in-stream willows and poplars that had been interrupting and diverting the flow of water. “Fantastic support for the project from FMS, including the clearing and preparation of planting sites, has allowed UNEL to focus almost all of its efforts and funding on revegetation,” she said.

For more information on the project, or on Sunday’s event, contact Ellen Nyberg at Southern New England Landcare on (02) 6772 9123 (ellen@snelcc.org.au) or go to: unelandcare.wordpress.com.

The aim of early European opera to achieve a perfect blend of poetry, spectacle and music will be examined in a free public lecture at the University of New England on Monday 12 November.

The visiting lecturer, Professor Sue Court, has published critical editions of two early European operas: Marco da Gagliano’s La Dafne (1608) and La Flora (1628). “The overall intention of combining many arts was to ‘unite every noble delight’,” Professor Court said, quoting Marco da Gagliano’s description of the first performance of La Dafne.

“When we think of opera, it is likely that by default the music springs to mind more readily than its poetry and visual aspects,” Professor Court said. “We are more likely to reignite memories of an opera by listening to a recording of the music than by reading the libretto or contemplating visual records of a performance.

“Yet, at the inception of the genre in the first few decades of seventeenth-century Europe, written accounts make it clear that an opera was regarded as a perfect blend of all those elements: poetic, visual and musical.”

Professor Court will discuss what she calls the “artistic triumvirate” of poetry, spectacle and music in the first performance of La Flora in Florence. “The libretto, based on the myth of Apollo and Flora bestowing flowers on the earth, made convenient political parallels and was accompanied by extravagant scenery and stage effects,” she said. “We know this from the engravings published with the libretto depicting the staging and scenery of the first performance.”

Her lecture on Monday 12 November, titled “‘Uniting every noble delight’: Illusion, deception and metaphor in the triumvirate of poetry, music and design in early European opera”, will be at 6 pm in UNE’s Arts Theatre (Lecture Theatre A1). The event will be the 25^th in UNE’s series of Gordon Athol Anderson Memorial Lectures, which honours the memory of the pioneering scholar of medieval and Renaissance music who became a Professor of Music at UNE. Refreshments will be served in the Arts Theatre foyer from 5.15 pm, and everyone is welcome.

Professor Court, whose critical editions of early European vocal music by Marenzio, d’India and da Gagliano have been published by Gaudia Music and Arts in the United States, is Dean of Humanities and Communication at Central Queensland University.

A former professional musician, she continues to perform (classical guitar and lute) when time allows.

More than 700 school students from 29 schools throughout northern NSW will travel to the University of New England next week to enjoy an experience that could change their whole perception of science and scientists.

UNE’s 10^th annual “Science in the Bush” event on Thursday 8 and Friday 9 November is part of the University’s community engagement initiative Far Out Science, which won a $45,000 grant from the Australian Government earlier this year under the Government’s “Unlocking Australia’s Potential” program.

“The three-year Government grant has enabled us to extend the reach of ‘Science in the Bush’ by subsidising students’ travel to UNE,” said Dr Michelle Taylor, one of the organisers of the event. “This year we have students coming from schools – both inland and on the coast – that are several hours’ travel away, as well as from very small schools such as those at Ebor and Wytaliba.”

“Our feedback from participants in “Science in the Bush” in past years has indicated that the experience really does help them to see that science can be a fascinating pursuit and an attractive career option,” Dr Taylor said.

“Science in the Bush”, which engages students in a wide range of enjoyable, hands-on science activities, is the first event in UNE’s Far Out Science program this year. It will be followed by two “Consumer Science” events that will take science out into local communities. UNE scientists will be entertaining people with practical experiments in the science of everyday life on Saturday 17 November at Tamworth Shopping World, and on Saturday 1 December at Armidale’s Centro shopping centre.

As a precursor to these events, UNE – with sponsorship from the educational publisher Wiley – has conducted a competition for school students to design a logo for Far Out Science. The winner of the competition, from among more than 50 entrants, was Lily Scales, a Year 4 student from Ben Venue Public School. Her logo (pictured above as an expanding image) will be used on T-shirts, posters, and other items connected with the events.

This year’s “Science in the Bush” program includes several new activities in fields such as forensic anthropology, psychology and zoology, as well as activities in physics, chemistry, computer science, engineering, biology and pharmacy. “The program is growing in terms of variety,” Dr Taylor said.

A Science Leveraging Fund grant to Far Out Science from the NSW Department of Trade and Investment is helping with the expansion of the “Consumer Science” program in local shopping centres. The program began last year in Armidale, and this year’s expansion to Tamworth will be followed next year by events in other centres, including Grafton and Toormina.

“They’re designed to show people how science is relevant to their lives – particularly in the things they buy and use around their homes and offices every day,” said Dr Erica Smith, another of the organisers. “There will be demonstrations of the chemistry underlying the production of familiar polymers and detergents – and even foods such as ice cream.”

A public lecture in Armidale next week will inform people about the challenges facing the law in its efforts to keep pace with twenty-first-century technological innovations.

Mark Perry (pictured here), newly arrived in Armidale as a Professor of Law at the University of New England, is particularly well qualified to provide significant insights into this process. With academic qualifications in computer science as well as in the law, and extensive experience in both of those fields at universities around the world, he has been conducting research on what he calls “the nexus of technology and the law” for more than 15 years.

His Inaugural Lecture, introducing him as a UNE Professor to the University and Armidale communities, will be at 6.30 pm in the Armidale Town Hall on Wednesday 7 November. The title of the lecture is “Law meets science”.

“When the law meets science,” Professor Perry said, “most lawyers and policy makers don’t understand the science and most scientists don’t understand the law. I conducted a survey of 100 researchers – most of them in Europe – and found that their knowledge of intellectual property and contractual issues was minimal.”

Mark Perry’s professorship at UNE has come after a 13-year succession of senior academic positions at the University of Western Ontario in Canada. During that time he developed a specialised interest in patent law as it applies to advances in biotechnology – a celebrated instance being Canada’s legal battle over the patenting of the genetically engineered “Harvard mouse” used in cancer research. In a 2001 issue of the European Intellectual Property Review, Professor Perry and his biologist partner, Dr Priti Krishna, published their insights into the Harvard mouse case in an article titled “Making sense of mouse tales”.

In recent weeks Dr Krishna has joined Professor Perry in Armidale, where she has taken up a position at UNE as an Associate Professor of molecular biology.

In rural New England Professor Perry will be particularly interested in legal aspects of the use of biotechnology in agriculture, and has in fact just written a paper on the legal implications of the detection of genetically-modified genes in “GM-free” crops. “We’re getting so good at detecting these genes that they’re appearing everywhere,” he said. “And how should the law deal with that? Science keeps moving forward, while policy and legal frameworks don’t keep up with them. In the case of GM genes in agricultural products I think we have to face the inevitable – and the international consensus appears to be that we should have done so years ago. The idea might be to ignore the presence of GM genetic material at levels of less than 1 per cent providing the product has been approved somewhere.”

“Agriculture is changing with the development of new technologies,” he said. “This is likely to become more important because of climate change, and people need to be aware of the issues involved so that they can at least influence the direction in which it goes.”

Mark Perry is co-editor of the book Knowledge Policy for the 21^st Century: Legal Perspectives, published in Canada last year by Irwin Law. He has recently been heavily involved in a Genome Canada project researching the ethical, economic, environmental, legal and social aspects of using a genomics approach to pest management.

The lecture on Wednesday 7 November will be followed by drinks and canapés, and everyone is welcome. People planning to attend the event can notify the organisers (to help with catering arrangements) by e-mailing events@une.edu.au by Monday 5 November.

THE PHOTOGRAPH of Professor Mark Perry displayed above expands to include Dr Priti Krishna.

The University of New England is a sponsor, once again, of the heritage writing and bush poetry competitions that are held on the first weekend of the annual Land of the Beardies Festival at Glen Innes.

This year’s competitions, on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 November, are to be judged by representatives of UNE’s arts research centre Arts New England.

The New England Heritage in Verse Competition, on Saturday, invites writers from the New England region to read an original piece of verse or prose on a topic of cultural and/or heritage significance to the region.

“New England prides itself on its historical memory,” said one of the judges – Dr Tom Bristow, a lecturer in English at UNE. “These writings will be judged in terms of the depth of research and the accuracy in documenting a historical incident.”

The other judge will be Dr Robert Hayworth, a former UNE lecturer who is an expert on the geology, vegetation and ornithology of the region. The organisers are planning to compile a number of the competition entries in a local publication.

Dr Bristow and Dr Hayworth will also judge the Bush Poetry Competition on the following day, and a written Children’s Poetry Competition. The children’s competition has a farming theme in 2012, the “Year of the Farmer”. “The original poetry by our young people should provide us with fresh views on the role of farming in Australia’s past, present and future,” Dr Bristow said. He added that, to illustrate the bond of poetry across the generations, the winners of the children’s competition would be presenting the winners of the Bush Poetry Competition with their awards.

The Bush Poetry Competition is conducted under the auspices of the Australian Bush Poetry Association Inc. “Bush poetry is a form of verse that is characteristically colloquial, colourful, direct, and of local meaning,” Dr Bristow said. “It has moved from an emphasis on rural life in colonial times to a broader understanding of bush experience in Australia’s history and its cultural significance in the present.”

Public readings in the New England Heritage in Verse Competition and the Bush Poetry Competition will begin at 9 am on both days in the Land of the Beardies Festival Social Club Hall, East Avenue, Glen Innes. The readings on Sunday will be preceded by the Poets’ Breakfast at 8 am.

“The competitions are held in public to both entertain the local community and sustain the historical memory of the region,” Dr Bristow said. “UNE’s participation in these events continues the University’s long tradition of fostering and recording the culture of the central area of the Tablelands.”

More information on the Land of the Beardies Festival, including competition entry forms, is available at: http://www.beardiesfestival.com.

A distinguished Aboriginal educator will discuss the role of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices in current debates over constitutional reform and “closing the gap” during a public lecture at the University of New England on Thursday 18 October.

Professor Peter Buckskin, Dean of Indigenous Scholarship, Engagement and Research at the University of South Australia, will draw on his personal experiences as a senior bureaucrat and academic to unpack the issues that continue, he says, to position Aboriginal people as “the object rather than the citizen”.

He believes education is the key to personal, family and community success, and is concerned that current practices of engaging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the discourse are problematic when building a sustainable relationship for the future.

When considering the current relationship between Australia’s First Peoples and other citizens, he asks whether Australians have learnt anything over the 45 years since the 1967 referendum that changed the Australian Constitution to guarantee Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people citizenship rights. “Everyone has human rights, and with them come responsibilities and reciprocity,” he says.  In suggesting a way forward, he will discuss who should be doing the “heavy lifting” if we are to leave a respectful legacy for the future of our nation.

Titled “Rights, responsibility and reciprocity . . .  Who does the heavy lifting?”, Professor Buckskin’s talk – the Frank Archibald Memorial Lecture for 2012 – will be at 7.30 pm in UNE’s Oorala Aboriginal Centre.  It will be followed by supper in the Oorala Centre’s foyer. Everyone is welcome to this free event.

Professor Buckskin is a Narungga man from the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia.  As an educator and professional bureaucrat for more than 34 years, his passion has been the pursuit of educational excellence for Aboriginal students.

His international work has involved being appointed to the Australian National Commission to UNESCO for a term, and the 2009 Working Group of Experts to the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. He is currently an Executive Member of the World Indigenous Nations Higher Education Consortium.

In recognition of his work Professor Buckskin received the Commonwealth Public Service Medal in the 2001 Australia Day Honours, the Frank G Klassen Award for Leadership and Contribution to Teacher Education from the International Council on Education for Teaching in 2003, and the National Deadly Award for Outstanding Achievement in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education in 2005. In 2007 he was elected as a Fellow of the Australian College of Educators.

Professor Buckskin currently serves as Chair of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Higher Education Consortium, Chair of the South Australian Aboriginal Education and Training Consultative Body, Co-Chair of Reconciliation South Australia, member of First Peoples Education Advisory Group, and member of the Australian Research Council’s Advisory Council. Recently the South Australian Government appointed Professor Buckskin as Convener of the Advisory Panel for Constitutional Recognition of Aboriginal People in the SA Constitution Act 1934.

The Frank Archibald Memorial Lecture is an annual event held in honour of Mr Frank Archibald, a revered Aboriginal community member of the Armidale area. Frank Archibald was renowned for his knowledge of – and  interest in – all issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, particularly education. The lecture is presented by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander speakers who are leading professionals in fields such as education, law, social justice, government, and the arts.  Over recent years, speakers have included Jackie Huggins, Pat O’Shane, Mick Dodson, Noel Pearson, the late Charles Perkins, Senator Aden Ridgeway and Rachael Maza Long.

Helen Machalias, a University of New England graduate now working for the Sydney Theatre Company (STC), is managing the STC’s New England Project, which culminates on stage in Armidale this week.

The project, which has involved hundreds of New England school students over the past year, has seen the creation of a new play – In a Heart Beat – that will be staged at The Armidale School’s Hoskins Centre in a five-day season beginning today, Tuesday 9 October.

Helen (pictured here) is the Acting Education Coordinator of the STC’s Communities Department, which provides workshops and mentoring opportunities for young people through conducting projects in schools and communities. The New England Project was initiated to create a new Australian work within an artistically vibrant regional community, using the expertise of the STC to support regional students’ drama education.

In a Heart Beat follows the story of a frustrated teenager – an outsider in his own town – who wants to leave school and family behind at the first opportunity. Written by Jo Turner and directed by Susanna Dowling (Artists in Residence at the STC), In a Heart Beat features professional actors Eamon Farren, Georgina Symes and Andrew Tighe, together with local performers Ethan Cranfield, Sam Kreusler and Eleanor Prokop (all from Armidale High School), Rheyanon Shields (Duval High School), Jack Tearle (The Armidale School), Emily Roberts and Adam Williams.

Helen Machalias graduated from UNE in 2009 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, Theatre and Communications. Beginning her career as a graduate at the Department of Water, Environment, Heritage and the Arts, she received an Australia Day Medal for her work on the Indigenous Broadcasting and Media Sector Review. In 2011 she was one of 12 arts managers from Australia to travel to New York to participate in the Bite the Big Apple Arts Management Tour. She began work with the Sydney Theatre Company last year, and is currently on the board of Young People and the Arts Australia.

“I consider myself exceptionally lucky to have studied in the School of Arts at UNE,” Helen said. “My degree was rigorous, fun and intellectually stimulating, and prepared me for a career in the creative industries and further developed what will be a lifelong passion for the arts. My lecturers were all knowledgeable and passionate about their subject, and because of the smaller class sizes knew all of their students as individuals.

“The University has contributed greatly to the New England Project, with other UNE alumni – including Chris Curcuruto, Alex Robson and Ben Bible – working on the production. We’ve also received support from the UNE Theatre Studies department, which provided us with a venue for our afternoon workshops, and the UNE Printery, which is an official sponsor of the project and has provided support through the printing of posters and programs for the production.”

“I’m still pinching myself that I got to manage this project,” she said. “For a proud Armidalian and lover of youth arts, it doesn’t get much better than the New England Project. Throughout the year I’ve been reminded of what a generous and artistically vibrant place Armidale is.”

Performances of In a Heart Beat are at 7.30 pm Tuesday 9 to Saturday 13 October, with matinees at 1.30 pm on Tuesday, and 11 am on Thursday and Friday. Bookings can be made online at www.trybooking.com/ZXL or by phoning the Hoskins Centre on (02) 6776 5878.

The STC is offering free tickets to UNE staff members and students for the performance on Thursday October 11 at 7.30 pm.