Kavin Akilan is one step closer to fulfilling a few lifelong dreams – trekking to Mount Everest Base Camp and volunteering in the medical field.
The first year Bond University student is heading to Nepal to continue his studies after being awarded a New Colombo Plan Scholarship, so tackling Mount Everest and gaining hands on medical experience will be more accessible than ever before.
“I’m studying biomedicine right now so I’d love to do a lot more medical volunteering, getting hands on experience within Nepal who are still in dire need of medical assistance. They’re still recovering from Covid-19 and Australia continues to provide funding so it will be nice to be on the ground and see those tangible impacts,” he said.
“And at the same time, I’ll be gaining invaluable experience about tropical health.”
Kavin is one of eight Bond students receiving a scholarship as part of the Australian Government’s New Colombo Plan (NCP), an initiative which aims to lift knowledge of the Indo Pacific in Australia by supporting Australian undergraduates to study and undertake internships in the region.
He will be heading to Nepal in 2024 for roughly three months to study abroad but will spend two months prior to that learning Nepali.
“Studying will definitely help me when I undertake my study component, whilst making my experience much more worthwhile, being able to form deeper engagements with the Nepali community.”
Another successful and deserving candidate is Bachelor of Law/Bachelor of Psychological Science student, Clare Matijevic.
Clare, who is also a Vice Chancellor Scholarship holder, is planning on using her NCP scholarship to head to Japan and then Singapore.
After learning Japanese for over 10 years, it felt appropriate.
“I have had a long-standing connection with Japan so I think going to Japan will allow me to strengthen my cultural connections a bit more and develop my language ability,” she said.
“I’m going to Japan for three months and then three months in Singapore for an internship opportunity.”
Clare aspires to work as an in-house council lawyer and believes receiving an NCP scholarship will help immensely to fulfil that goal.
“The goals of the Australian Government’s NCP Program really align personally with what I am trying to achieve, and I’ll be able to bring back skills that are transferrable, from the Indo Pacific Region to Australia.”
Independent travel at the age of 19 can be daunting for some, but Clare is looking forward to the challenge and expanding her possibilities.
“I loved being a part of the VC (Vice Chancellor) community at Bond, it’s given me a lot of different friends, a lot of connections, allowed me to develop as a person…. NCP really complements that, by giving me an international basis.
“I have a good domestic basis and now I’ll have a more international basis.”
Clare will be in the same region as Chloe Hillcoat, another NCP scholar who will be attending Yonsei University, South Korea.
Chloe, a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Laws student, will use her NCP scholarship to continue her love for learning and travelling.
She is currently on exchange in the United Kingdom for a semester, thanks to the Bond University Student Exchange Program.
“It’s (travel) something I never expected when I applied to do my degree at Bond and it has directly and indirectly allowed me to travel to so many counties and gain such a global perspective, it’s really such an invaluable experience,” Chloe said.
Earlier this year Chloe also had the chance to travel to Japan for a model United Nations, describing those two weeks as the best in her life.
So, when she received word on her NCP scholarship award, she thought about travelling back to Japan, a place of familiarity, or embarking on a new adventure.
“As much as I love Japan, I have been there now twice in my life, and I thought that if I was given this opportunity, I should really expand my understanding of the Indo Pacific by going to another country.
“I have a friend who went to South Korea last year and absolutely loved it, so that was definitely an influencing factor.
“I’m also just really interested in their culture and their history. It’s a place I have so much to learn about and to learn from and that really intrigues me.”
Full list of Bond’s NCP scholars:
• Joshua Wong, Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences
• Olivia Wilson, Bachelor of Laws/ International Relations
• Chloe Hillcoat, Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Laws
• Ma-Janneh Miller, Bachelor of Law /International Relations
• Charles Bergman, Bachelor of Laws/Bachelor of Business (Dual Degree)
• Kavin Akilan, Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences
• Kayla Humphreys, Bachelor of Law /International Relations
• Clare Matijevic, Bachelor of Law/ Bachelor of Psychological Science