Indigenous Students

Indigenous Education

Indigenous School Student Mentoring Program

UWS piloted the Indigenous School Student Mentoring Program with Ambarvale and Leumeah High Schools in 2009, and in 2010 it was expanded to include Airds, Holsworthy, Hoxton Park, James Busby and Sarah Redfern High Schools. The program continues to expand and now includes 17 schools in the Western Sydney and South West Sydney regions.

The program aims to build the students' educational aspirations, skills and confidence. Year 10 - 12 students are matched with UWS students trained as mentors. The school students also participate in academic and cultural enrichment workshops on-campus. Helped by their mentors, the cohort at each school devises and implements a group project to benefit their school or community. For details on one exciting 2011 school project see School students raise awareness of Indigenous cultural heritage.

For more information, please contact Anne McLean a.mclean@uws.edu.au or Josh Mason j.mason@uws.edu.au or see UWS celebrates the success of its Indigenous Mentoring Program. 

UWS Rural Indigenous Student visits

The success of the first UWS Rural Indigenous Students campus visit in 2010 led to two further visits in June and November 2011.  Fifteen schools from the far west, far north west, central west and western NSW as well as the upper and lower Hunter regions participated in the campus visits from 2010 - 2011.

In 2012 over 80 Indigenous students from eleven rural schools participated in a campus visit on Hawkesbury campus from 26 - 30 November.  The students experiences university life through workshops on Penrith, Campbelltown and Hawkesbury campus including:

• A law mini-moot workshop
• Cultural workshops covering Indigenous art, story telling, wood carving and the didgeridoo
• Engineering, physics, music, visual design, natural sciences, medicine and sports science workshops.

Social activities included a dinner with Indigenous Elders and community members as well as UWS staff and students.

Recent media releases

For more information on events and programs for Indigenous student run by or supported by UWS please see:

• November 2012 - UWS Early Learning celebrates Aboriginal culture at the Kids Corroborree
• November 2012 - Rural and remote Indigenous students experience university life
• November 2012 - Aboriginal students gain recognition for their achievements 
• November 2012 - UWS helps Indigenous students decode the signals and signs of a healthy lifestyle
• November 2012 - Future Indigenous health professionals keep pace at UWS
• October 2012 - UWS showcases Aboriginal gifted and talented students' projects
• July 2012 - School students investigate the signals and signs of good health