School’s Environmental education curriculum

In 2009, Australia launched an educational initiative to inspire school children to preserve the environment. Isabel and Dame Elisabeth Murdoch visited the sustainable-designed Williamstown High School in Melbourne’s west on May 8, 2009, to launch the program. In the following days, Isabel visited several schools to discuss the initiative and meet with students. One of the schools she visited was her old college, St. Monica’s College in Cairns, Queensland.

The Living in 2030: An Experiment in Survival curriculum is a set of educational resources that invites students to imagine a world 20 years from now where environmental solutions have not yet been found to pressing issues including global warming. Students must then find solutions to the problems. Dame Elisabeth is the patron of the Global Green Plan Foundation, which along with corporate company Fuji Xerox, will distribute the curriculum materials to other schools. After touring the high school’s impressive grounds, which include a vegetable garden and water tanks, Dame Elisabeth said children had an important role to play in preserving the environment. “I think the future is in their hands,” she said.

After touring the high school’s impressive grounds, which include a vegetable garden and water tanks, Dame Elisabeth said children had an important role to play in preserving the environment. “I think the future is in their hands,” she said. Steve Cook, principal at Williamstown High School which has trialled the program, said students had responded with optimism and creativity to the program. “The work produced by our students involved in this program is characterised by their creativity, passion for the environment and a real desire to make a difference,” he said in a statement. “The curriculum provides facts whilst capturing imaginations and developing skills to address environmental challenges.” Global Green Plan Foundation vice president Don Hewett said about 10 other schools in Melbourne had expressed an interest in the curriculum. (Source)

La Trobe’s Aspire Program

La Trobe’s “Aspire” Early Admissions Program rewards involvement in community, leadership and volunteering with an early conditional offer in September into their chosen course at La Trobe. The initiative is designed to reward secondary students who have actively engaged with their community through volunteering and service, by providing early offers into La Trobe even before they’ve completed their final year exams, let alone received an ATAR score.

In August 2016, Isabel, model Laura Henshaw and AFL player Luke Mcdonald joined forces to promote La Trobe University’s Aspire program at the Melbourne campus. There they assisted in providing sustenance for the masses with a ‘Pay-It-Forward-Pizza’ initiative, whereby people who received a pizza from the three stars were encouraged to pass their empty pizza box to a stranger, which could then be redeemed for a fresh one.