Celebrating student success in languages and cultures
In the presence of family, friends, donors, and official representatives from various countries and community groups, the school presented a total of 68 scholarships and prizes to students in language and culture studies at the University's MacLaurin Hall on Thursday 29 April.
Dean of Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Professor Annamarie Jagose opened the event as a "great moment to celebrate student achievement". She noted the enduring significance of the school's awards which span more than 120 years – with the oldest scholarship establishment dating back to 1898, and the newest prize founded in 2020.
The University of Sydney is very proud of its long tradition of teaching languages and the wealth of its offerings. Understanding different languages makes us more tolerant and gives us a broader perspective – not only on our own society, but also on ourselves.
In her Head of School address, Professor Yixu Lu expressed thanks to donors whose generosity enables high-achieving students to be recognised for their hard work. She also thanked parents, relatives and friends whose "love and understanding play a key part in helping students continue their path of language studies."
Professor Vrasidas Karalis, Master of Ceremonies for the evening, commended students for their dedicated efforts in their studies: "We know our students deserve the praise from all of us because they persisted in their studies despite the pandemic last year."
"Learning languages is opening the windows to the unpredictable vicissitudes of life and history, and this is what the School of Languages and Cultures seeks to achieve: to enable our students with the necessary knowledge and sensitivity to cope with the questions and demands of life," said Professor Karalis.
"Our gratitude also goes to all the Chairs of Departments, academics and tutors whose continuous and tireless involvement in teaching and pedagogy helped maintain the highest standards of learning and teaching – not only in our University – but in the whole of Australia."
As a key feature of the school's awards ceremonies in recent years, the audience was treated to a cultural showcase. Dr Matthew Shores, Lecturer in Japanese Studies, delivered a Kamigata rakugo performance, a distinctly spirited and musical comic storytelling artform originating from Osaka, Japan and its surroundings. Titled 'Left-handed Bonsai’, an act written by Dr Shores, his performative tale follows a bonsai competition winner receiving a certificate in a beautiful university – a nod to the evening's occasion.
Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Advanced Studies student Maria Valdes Gonzalez received a total of seven scholarships and prizes for her exceptional performance across introductory and intermediate French. A trilingual speaker with fluency in Spanish, Maria was drawn to language studies at the University of Sydney due to "the freedom that I’ve been given to choose majors from a wide range of subjects."
We need to understand languages as the most important tools we can use in this interconnected world we live in. I’ve also grown to love studying at the School of Languages and Cultures even more because of the supportive culture that I’ve become a part of.
Ranking first in the state and top 40 of universities worldwide*, the School of Languages and Cultures offers a wide range of language offerings and in-depth studies of the world's cultures.
Warm congratulations to all prize winners and scholarship recipients for the 2020 academic year:
| Arabic Language and Cultures |
|
| Louis Ribiere-Male Zev Shteinman Aletheia Yosaviera |
PD Jack Prize |
| Chinese Studies |
|
| Yaoshen Chen Gabriela Powell Thomas |
Asian Students’ Council’s 1963 Festival of Asia Scholarship for Proficiency in Chinese Studies |
| Cosette Craig Kazune Horimoto |
Li Zuoji Prize in Chinese Language |
| Yanmeng Liu Zhan Xu |
The Raymond Hsu Scholarship |
| William He Rebecca Jensen Rebecca Li Prudence Luttrell Ena Nam |
To Wing Undergraduate Chinese Studies Prize |
| Joshua Armstrong Madeleine Reynolds |
Winston G Lewis Prize in Chinese History |
| European Studies | |
| Oscar Eggleton | EU Ambassadors Prize |
| Ryan Bridcutt | Robert Schuman Prize |
| Caitlin Mansfield | The European Studies Konrad Adenauer Prize |
| French and Francophone Studies | |
| Audrey McGuire | Anne Bates Memorial Scholarship for French |
| Erin Morgan | Banque Nationale de Paris Prize for French |
| Allegra Gardiner Yining Mao Chaorui Wang |
French Embassy Prize I |
| Maria Valdes Gonzalez | French Embassy Prize II |
| Charlene Jee | French Embassy Prize III |
| Erin Morgan | Graham Jones Prize for French |
| Caitlin Pettigrew Timothy Richmond |
Ian David Armfield Memorial Prize (French) |
| Maria Valdes Gonzalez | Joan Norris Prize |
| Emily Bakker | Margaret Ann Bailey Memorial Prize for Honours in a Modern European Language (French) |
| Emily Bakker | Peter Edward Moran Memorial Prize for French |
| Charlene Jee | Ronald Horan Prize for French |
| Allegra Gardiner Yining Mao Chaorui Wang |
Sonia Marks Memorial Prize for French |
| Germanic Studies | |
| Daniel Cherepinskiy Chaeyeon Lee Lachlan Schreuder |
Austrian Embassy Prize |
| Madison Allan | Enid Watson Memorial Scholarship in Germanic Studies |
| Carl Bodnaruk | Goethe Prize in German Studies for German Honours |
| Nicholas Zengoski | Ian David Armfield Memorial Prize (German) |
| Emma Stewart | Margaret Ann Bailey Memorial Prize For Honours in a Modern European Language (German) |
| Hebrew, Biblical and Jewish Studies | |
| Noa Zwikael | Bernard and Lotka Ferster Scholarship for First Year Beginners’ Modern or Classical Hebrew |
| Ramsen Warda | Ivan and Ursula Cher Prize |
| Liora Baram | The Bernard and Rodia Ferster Prize |
| Olivia Williams | The Percy Joseph Marks Prize for First Year Beginners’ Classical or Modern Hebrew |
| Benjamin Adler Eliza Cooper |
The Percy Joseph Marks Prize for Intermediate (2000 Level) Modern Hebrew |
| Natalia Laffer-Liebson | The Percy Joseph Marks Prize for Advanced (3000 Level) Modern Hebrew |
| Indian Subcontinental Studies | |
| Dorjee Wangdi | Khyentse Foundation Award for Excellence in Buddhist Studies |
| Indonesian Studies | |
| Almeria Barry | Asian Students’ Council’s 1963 Festival of Asia Prize for Proficiency in Indonesian Studies Second Level |
| Nara Brown | Asian Students’ Council’s 1963 Festival of Asia Prize for Proficiency in Indonesian Studies Third Level |
| Jennifer Yang | FH van Naerssen Memorial Prize for Indonesian Studies |
| Elias Hordern | Ronald J Worsley Memorial Prize for Indonesian Studies |
| International Comparative Literature and Translation Studies | |
| Damien Mulcahy | International Comparative Literary Studies Program Award |
| Italian Studies | |
| Sabrina Mock | Countess EM Freehill Prize No. I for First Year Italian |
| Hannah Ebbings | Countess EM Freehill Prize No. II for Second Year Italian |
| Anna Zavodja | Rosina Tedeschi Memorial Prize for Italian Conversation |
| Yasmine Masi | The Silvana D’lapico-Bien Prize in Italian Studies |
| Yasmine Masi | Judith Russell Ryan Scholarships in Memory of Signora Tedeschi |
| Japanese Studies | |
| Vicky Yang | AL Sadler Prize for Excellence in Japanese Studies |
| Korean Studies | |
| Xuebo Feng Hiu Ching Tang |
Korean Education Centre Prize |
| Manli Xu Joey Zhang |
Top Media Prize |
| Modern Greek and Byzantine Studies | |
| Elefteria Antonelli | GS Caird Scholarship in Second Year Modern Greek |
| Jamie Christoforou | Order of the Australian Hellenic Education Progressive Association Scholarship in Modern Greek |
| Fereniki Ghelis | Robert William Henderson Memorial Prize |
| Natasha Zakis | The Modern Greek Studies Foundation Prize in Modern Greek Studies 1 |
| Anna-Marina Anagnostopoulou | The Modern Greek Studies Foundation Prize in Modern Greek Studies 2 |
| Joyce Kolevris | The Modern Greek Studies Foundation Prize in Modern Greek Studies 3 |
| Stefanos Stavropoulos | The SUGS Prize for Modern Greek and Byzantine Studies |
Information for scholarships and prizes listed above are provided where their respective pages are available on the University's website at the time of this article's publication.
See the list of our award recipients for the 2019 academic year.
Browse the 2021 Awards Ceremony photo album on the School of Languages and Cultures's Facebook page.