Become a Fogarty Scholar

UWA Fogarty Scholarship 20th Anniversary Breakfast

The celebratory breakfast hosted by UWA and the Fogarty Foundation on 27 September champions all that has been achieved since the formation of the UWA Fogarty Scholarship Program in 2003. 

The celebratory event marked 20 years of partnership as part of the Scholarship program championed all that has been achieved since its formation in 2003.   Dr Annie Fogarty’s speech at the breakfast gave the opportunity to reflect on the vast achievements of the Fogarty Foundation Scholars and alumni, which includes several global projects, initiatives, and partnerships.

Attendees enjoyed hearing from keynote speaker Rob Scott, Managing Director and CEO of Wesfarmers, reflecting on the importance of a lifelong love for learning, something which drives his passion to continue to grow and achieve.

This celebration was an opportunity for scholars, alumni, staff, and relevant professionals to reflect on the Fogarty Foundation Scholar programme; as well as look forward to further projects, initiatives and collaborations which may grow within this ever-expanding network of notable individuals.  A quality seen in all our Scholars and alumni is the passion and drive to excel in their field and make a contribution to society. As the leaders of today – and tomorrow – we look forward to seeing the increasing impact they will make.  

This celebration exemplifies the drive by the Fogarty Foundation to drive sustainable change by helping create a brighter future through education, leadership and raising aspirations.   

We are grateful to the University of Western Australia for being such a wonderful partner over these two decades and congratulate all our Scholars, past and present, for their efforts and achievements.  As the Foundation’s logo suggests, the change we ignite is a ripple, starting with the youth of today and continuing through strong leadership for tomorrow. 

The UWA Fogarty Scholars Program has produced an impressive roster of alumni who are leaders in their fields. From doctors and engineers to entrepreneurs and educators, these scholars are making waves and driving positive change worldwide. Their accomplishments stand as a testament to the power of education, leadership, and community engagement.

We hope you made some new connections at our celebratory breakfast. Stay in touch with us through Facebook, LinkedIn and X; and you can also find all our amazing young leaders through our NEW scholar’s database. Please also enjoy our two latest films, one that promotes our Scholarship program and another that provides some insights into the paths of our alumni, which features six of our Scholars who are now living and working elsewhere in the world. See a link to the photo gallery from the celebration breakfast.

It was wonderful to have the opportunity to hear from five inspiring UWA Fogarty Scholars / alumni at the annual Reception hosted by UWA for the first year UWA Fogarty Scholars and their families.  Following remarks from Foundation Chairperson Annie Fogarty AM and Deputy Vice Chancellor (Education) Professor David Sadler’s, the audience was treated to a stimulating panel discussion from these five outstanding young people. 

The panel, which was facilitated ably by Fogarty Scholars’ Association President Haseeb Riaz (Cohort of 2017, Bachelor of Biomedical Science, currently studying for a Doctor of Medicine), comprised alumni:

and current Scholars:

Panellists discussed what ‘leadership’ means to them and the ways in which the Scholarship program supported them in becoming a leader.   The differences between university and high school, as well as how to set priorities, look after oneself and manage study and socialising were shared.  Amongst the wealth of advice that was provided, some tips for the first years included:

Thank you so much to our UWA Fogarty Scholars and Alumni for giving their time for an event that was very well received by the first years and their families, with thanks also to UWA for hosting this great event.

The team at the Foundation are excited to see that ManUP, a venture co-founded by UWA Fogarty Scholar and current FSA President, Haseeb Riaz (Scholar 2017 – ), nominated as a finalist in the Western Australian Council of Social Service, 2023 Community Services Excellence Awards.  https://www.wacoss.org.au/news/community-services-excellence-awards-2023-finalists-announced/

ManUP is one of 4 finalists in the “small organisation providing collaborative, innovative or creative programs or services”.  Man Up aims to redefine masculinity through workshops and presentations that engage young boys in high school to investigate their ideas of masculine culture, mental health and relationships.

The Awards are a longstanding partnership between the Western Australian Council of Social Service and the Department of Communities WA, with the support of Lotterywest.  They recognise and celebrate the work of organisations and individuals in the community services sector, who have demonstrably made a positive difference to people, families, and communities through innovative and creative practice.

Winners will be announced at a ceremony on 1 May.  Fingers crossed!!

We were delighted to see our new alumni Racheline’s (Scholar 2019 to 2022) name included in the impressive list of 24 talented young women released in honour of International Women’s Day by Young Australians in International Affairs.  Every year the list recognises, celebrates and promotes the next generation of women achieving success and making an impact in international affairs; whether that be in government, academia, think tanks, the private sector or civil society.  Follow this link to read about Racheline and this group of outstanding young people.  

https://www.youngausint.org.au/post/2023-young-women-to-watch-in-international-affairs

Racheline currently works in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, where she develops policy advice for the Prime Minister on immigration, multiculturalism, settlement, and humanitarian programs to achieve the best possible outcomes for new arrivals and the Australian public.

She is the Chief Partnerships Officer of the ASEAN-Australia Strategic Youth Partnership and also directed ‘Where Oceans Meet’ in 2021, a charity concert featuring traditional music of the Indo-Pacific region and music written by composers of Asian descent, with proceeds donated to the Australian Red Cross Global COVID-19 Appeal.  

Racheline plays clarinet and speaks Indonesian, Mandarin, and Japanese.

President: Haseeb Riaz

Over the past two years, Haseeb has co-founded a non-for-profit organisation called MAN UP, which aims to redefine masculinity through workshops and presentations that engage young boys in high school to investigate their ideals of masculine culture, mental health and relationships. 

Haseeb has enjoyed his start to medicine, developing a passion for eye health, especially in a rural setting.  He is also excited to be elected as the Fogarty Scholars’ Association President, who in this role will join the Fogarty Foundation Board of Trustees in 2023. 

Vice Presdent: Caleb Adams 

Caleb is studying a double degree in Mathematics & Statistics, and Chemical Engineering. Caleb is an active member of the St Catherine’s College community and continues to volunteer with additional organisations. 

In 2022, Caleb was Funding Officer for the Futures Committee that organises the Fogarty Futures Leadership Conference for secondary high school students. In this role he brought a considerable financial boost to the event which allowed regional students – representing 20% of attendees – to be supported to attend. 

Treasurer: Chelsea Francis 

Chelsea completed her honours dissertation in the field of population health with the cardiovascular epidemiology research group at UWA. 

Her dissertation focussed on cardiac troponin testing with the hope that the research will contribute to medical decision making in the assessment of chest pain in emergency departments.  

Chelsea has also served as the Treasurer of the Fogarty Scholars Association for several years.

Secretary: Emma Bond 

Emma has taken on the role of Secretary after being FSA President in 2022.  Last year was also a significant year for her as she spent semester 2 studying at the National University of Singapore. A highlight of the experience was making friends from around the world and learning about their culture. Emma performed with the NUS Symphony Orchestra at the Singapore Botanic Gardens and swam in the Singapore University Games and the Major Games Qualifier. Emma had the opportunity to do her exchange under a Westpac Asian Exchange Scholarship; and thoroughly enjoyed the leadership program which focussed on how Australia can effectively engage with Asia. 

Emma has also been elected President of the UWA Student Sports Council for 2023 and looks forward to working with all the diverse UWA sporting entities to further the objective of enhancing the UWA student experience.

Communications Director: Phoebe Dyson 

This year, Phoebe is excited to be completing her second semester on exchange in the United Kingdom. At the completion of her undergraduate degree, she hopes to continue her studies within the Juris Doctor program. 

Phoebe was the Marketing Officer for the 2022 Fogarty Futures Leadership Conference which allowed her to apply her marketing knowledge to help promote the conference to young leaders across Western Australia. She was also the 2022 Communications Officer on the Bachelor of Philosophy Union Committee.

General Representatives:

Shantelle Jeyakumar 

Shantelle is passionate about empowering diverse communities, finding her place in the UWA Women’s Department as the Women of Colour Collective Convenor. She is also a mentor for We Are Womxn, an organisation dedicated to promoting positive conversations about taboo female topics. 

Shantelle continued to deepen her connection to the Fogarty community as a first-year representative of the Fogarty Scholars Association (FSA) – a role that allowed her to learn more about how the Committee operates.  She was a co-convenor for the 2022 Fogarty Futures Leadership Conference and looks forward to being a contributing member of the FSA in 2023. 

Pooja Ramesh 

Cultural and community-oriented activities have always played an instrumental role in Pooja’s life. She has been involved in Anandadhara WA – an ensemble that embraces diversity and the traversal of cultural boundaries – and is a member of the ASEANAustralia Strategic Youth Partnership Digital Events team. 

Pooja has also enjoyed participating in programs such as Teach Learn Grow and as a mentor and judge for the Lions Youth of the Year program. Pooja hopes to share her passion for education, music, and community widely, inspiring others to realise their potential and role as an active citizen. Pooja was awarded the New Colombo Plan Mobility Grant and undertook a Virtual Public Health Study Tour in December 2020 as part of the Grant. 

First Year Representatives:

Juliet Roux: Juliet graduated from Perth Modern School in 2022 with a Certificate of Distinction and the School subject award for Literature.  She contributed to her school community as a House Captain and as a violinist in the Senior Symphony Orchestra. 

Juliet’s current area of interest lies in policy and diplomacy.  In particular, she is interested in investigating the emerging presence of technology and intelligence within the judicial system. She is excited by the prospect of an exchange semester during her studies to broaden her knowledge in this field.

Jade Wallwork: Jade grew up in the Wheatbelt town of Corrigin. She attended St Mary’s Anglican Girls’ School on a boarding scholarship. 

On graduating in 2022, she received the Lynne Thompson Prize for Humanities and Social Sciences and the subject prizes for Media and Modern History ATAR. 

In 2022, Jade won the ABC’s national Heywire competition for the Great Southern region. She was invited to speak on ABC radio about the struggles she experienced living in rural Western Australia. Jade has a passion for filmmaking, and her ATAR media short film was selected for screenings at several film festivals, including the SWAN Perth International Women in Film Festival, and shortlisted at the Bond University Film and Television Awards. She can’t wait to continue to explore her passions by becoming involved in creativity-based clubs at UWA.

Congratulations to the following UWA Fogarty Scholars who have been announced as members of the Fogarty Scholars Association (FSA) committee for 2023.

President: Haseeb Riaz
Vice President: Caleb Adams
Treasurer: Chelsea Francis
Secretary: Emma Bond
Communications Director: Phoebe Dyson and Pooja Ramesh
Futures Oversight: Lachlan McDonald
Fresher representatives and Futures Committee to be elected next year.

All UWA Fogarty Scholars and Alumni are members of the Fogarty Scholars Association (FSA), a student-run body which aims to strengthen the network of the group so that they can achieve greater impact.

The Fogarty Scholars Association work closely with the Fogarty Foundation to integrate their activities with the key objectives of the scholarship program. Each year they host a series of events and programs for the purpose of networking, up-skilling and fundraising for charities.

The FSA committee aims to create opportunities for scholars to form stronger connections, and to build a community where they can learn from each other.

Many thanks to the outgoing committee members for their hard work and dedication to to the Fogarty Scholars and Alumni. You can read the FSA 2022 Annual Report here.

Congratulations to the amazing group of first-year Scholars who facilitated the 2022 Fogarty Futures Leadership Conference in October.

Forty-eight impressive and motivated young West Australian’s (20% from regional areas) were invited to join the Scholars for a four-day conference at the Ern Halliday Recreation Camp, where they were inspired to explore leadership and entrepreneurial opportunities. 

Congratulations to the 2022 organising committee led by Co-Convenors Shantelle Jeyakumar and Naveen Nimalan, alongside Caleb Adams (Funding Officer), Phoebe Dyson (Marketing Officer), and Daniel Zhou (Logistics Officer).

The conference program focused around four key themes:

Guest speakers included Kate Chaney MP, Senator Jordon Steele-John, Anish Badgeri and Richard Mavros. Various workshops were run by Scholars including Luke Osborne, Joel Peiris and Lachlan McDonald, and external groups including United Nations Youth, 180 Degrees Consulting and Venture – UWA Student Innovation Centre. Other activities included the social impact fair, mentor group discussions, morning walks and campfire night.

With sponsorship from Hawaiian, Wesfarmers, Boston Consulting Group, UWA and the Fogarty Foundation, the Fogarty Futures team offered low attendance fees and travel scholarships to participants.

The Fogarty Futures Leadership Conference was initiated by the Fogarty Scholars’ Association in 2013. Found out more at https://fogartyfutures.org.

Congratulations Joel Peiris, 2022 recipient of the Jeremy Cheang Award for his online STEM education and robotics business, TECXELS, and his robotics community workshops.

Joel has always had a strong interest in the human body, robotics and artificial intelligence. He has participated in numerous robotics competitions locally, nationally and internationally, and has designed and presented STEM programs through several organisations including RoboCup Australia, FIRST Robotics Competition, FIRST LEGO League and Robogals. 

To encourage younger students to engage in STEM, Joel creates material and presents workshops at the City of Swan Libraries – Ballajura ‘GEEK HUB’. In 2020, with the challenges of the pandemic developing, Joel saw the need to create online tutorials to keep students engaged in STEM activities and so he created an online STEM and robotics business. 

Joel is a UWA Fogarty Scholar studying Biomedical Science with a double major in Integrated Medical Sciences and Clinical Practice (2024) with an Assured Pathway to the Doctor of Medicine. He said that receiving the Jeremy Cheang Award would allow him to purchase more equipment and robotics kits necessary to mobilise this free community program.

“I could travel across Western Australia delivering my tutorials and presentations in areas where there is interest in STEM and robotics,” Joel said. 

“This STEM community education program could also mentor and train teachers to teach robotics and influence their curriculum in the classrooms,” he said.

The children who benefit from Joel’s workshops range from the ages of 7-18 years and include students from Hillarys, Cottesloe, Ellenbrook, Morley, Tuart Hill, Subiaco, South Perth, Riverton, Nollamara, Gooseberrry Hill, Guildford and Rockingham. 

Joel said that in addition to developing and building TECXELS, he intends to explore areas of nanotechnology and medical engineering as he progresses through his medical studies at UWA. 

“My ambition looking ahead is to combine these areas through research and development in a specific area and work towards a specialisation as a medical doctor. This would mean combining medical engineering, artificial intelligence, robotics and programming embedded in my specialisation as a medical doctor or surgeon.”

The Jeremy Cheang Award is an annual award presented to a UWA Fogarty Scholar to acknowledge their contribution to their chosen profession, the University and/or the wider community. The award in presented in memory of Jeremy Cheang, a former UWA Fogarty Scholar.

The UWA Fogarty Scholars and Alumni enjoyed an evening of canapés at the UWA Club recently, as they celebrated another inspiring year of learning, leadership and collective accomplishment.

InspirED is the final event of the year for the Leadership and Innovation program where UWA executive and staff, past speakers and friends of the Scholarship Program are invited to celebrate the achievements of Scholars.

David Sadler, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Education), spoke about the significance of the scholarship program and congratulated Scholars and Alumni for their commitment to excellence and achievement. 

Emma Bond shared an overview of the Fogarty Scholars’ Association events and congratulated the Futures team for another hugely successful Futures Conference. 

David Scaife MLA shared his story, from country public school boy to UWA Fogarty Scholar. He spoke about how the scholarship has supported his professional life and encouraged Scholars to take every opportunity presented to them.

Graduating Scholars, Hannah Bowden, Ben Caulfield, Adehlia Ebert and Theodore Kenworthy-Groen, spoke about their experiences at UWA and their future pursuits. 

Thank you to everyone who attended this InspirED event. It was a wonderful opportunity to hear from UWA Fogarty Scholars and Alumni who are working towards and/or acting as leaders in our community and beyond.  

Jane Pankhurst is a postgraduate Fogarty Scholar completing a Doctor of Medicine. Jane is also an esteemed kayaker and has recently been selected for the 2022 Australian Canoe Marathon Team. Jane will be competing at the World Championships in the Open Woman’s K2 Standard Course event in Portugal later this year.

You have been selected for the 2022 Australian Canoe Marathon Team; how long have you been working towards this?

I started kayaking competitively in the marathon discipline, comparatively late in life, at the start of 2019. The Canoe Marathon National Championships were held in WA that year, and after participating in that event, immersing myself within a competitive environment and being surrounded by some incredible paddlers, I was inspired to work towards making the Australian Canoe Marathon Team. 

Unfortunately, due to COVID, our national championships were cancelled in 2020 and 2021, so Australia was unable to send teams to the World Championships. 2022 was the first year the canoe marathon community has competed at a national level, so this goal has been 3 years in the making! 

What does a typical training week look like for you?

Currently, a typical training week includes seven on-water paddle sessions, three strength sessions and two cross-training sessions, Monday through to Saturday. Despite the dark and the cold, winter mornings and afternoons are some of the most beautiful times to paddle, the sunrises and sunsets are amazing! 

How do you juggle training/studying/working?

Most of the time not very well haha! I rely heavily on my diary. If I plan ahead, I find it much easier to balance my commitments throughout the week. It is easy to let the juggle overwhelm you, and I think like many, I sometimes feel guilty if I don’t feel like I’m filling my time with something ‘productive’. So, I have learnt the importance of making time to de-load. Which is equally as important as the time spent working towards career, sport or study related goals. For me, this involves spending time with my family, taking my dog for a walk in the bush, and lots of sleep! 

What do you love about paddling?

There is so much I love about paddling! It is such a technical sport and there are many factors at play when working to refine and develop our craft. I love that development in this sport is a lifelong journey and the pursuit of my best is a benchmark that constantly moves. I love that I will never stop learning. 

The paddling community in Australia is incredible. Within the daily training environment, we get the opportunity to interact with world renowned athletes and coaches. All of whom, are committed to giving back to the wider sporting community. I am so grateful for the opportunity to learn from these people. It is impossible not to be inspired! 

You must be incredibly disciplined. How do you think your sporting achievements and commitment to training have assisted you with your studies and career goals? 

I find that sport is as much a mental game as it is physical. Kayaking has taught me so much about how my mind works, in terms of how to deal with the self-critical voice that I’m sure many of us are all too familiar with. The understanding of how to manage unhelpful thought patterns, is a skill that I have transferred into other areas of my life. 

Kayaking has taught me to embrace the present, find flow, and never let fear of failure get in the way of opportunity.