Winners wanted for prestigious TJ Ryan scholarships
15 October 2009
By Rebecca Perry
Published author and past TJ Ryan scholarship recipient, Amy Barker.
Awards can carry prestige, honour and financial help, and recipients of the TJ Ryan Memorial Medal and Scholarship deservedly receive all three.
Since the scholarship program started in 1927, awardees have gone onto a range of careers, including law and medicine, so they can use their talents to help others.
One such success story is 1996 winner Amy Barker.
Back then, Ms Barker was a ward of the state and working hard to succeed at Maryborough State High School after an often-difficult childhood on the Gold Coast.
The scholarship helped her to start an arts/law degree because she wanted to work in social justice until she discovered the best way she could help young people was through her real passion - writing. She subsequently graduated with degrees in both literature and creative writing.
Ms Barker's childhood experiences inspired her first novel Omega Park which delves into the plight of disadvantaged teenagers in a Gold Coast housing estate.
She won the 2008 Queensland Premier's Literary Award for Best Emerging Author for Omega Park, which was published by University of Queensland Press in August 2009.
'I didn't expect to win either award but the TJ Ryan scholarship helped me get to university and I wouldn't like to think how I would have done that otherwise,' Ms Barker said, now 31 and based in Brisbane.
Now a full-time writer, Ms Barker is working towards finishing her second novel by the end of the year and hopes Omega Park will be introduced to the secondary school reading lists.
She said she hopes her writing can help young people by 'raising challenging issues that have been largely ignored or misunderstood for all to see and hopefully act upon'.
Nominations for the 2010 TJ Ryan scholarships are now open.
State and non-state secondary schools are invited to nominate one student for the scholarship which recognises outstanding leadership and academic excellence during Year 12.
There are ten scholarships are up for grabs. Each includes up to $10,000 over five years to assist with university costs, a boxed medal and a certificate of recognition.
Five highly commended prizes of $1000 and merit certificates will also be granted.
To nominate, visit the website.
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