By Mikayla van Loon
Four young women have been announced as the 2022 recipients of Inspiro’s tertiary health scholarships to help fund their studies and give them opportunities that might not have been possible before.
Amy Imms, 23, Zoe Eggleton, 24, Danielle Virgona, 21, and Olivia Marceddo, 22, were each awarded the scholarships on Thursday 28 April.
Physiotherapy student at Monash University, Amy, was awarded the major scholarship prize of $10,000, something that will help fund the final semester of her master’s degree.
“At the end of my course, I will have to pay $12,000 out of pocket to complete my final semester…I will also be completing a regional placement in Hobart at the end of this year for five weeks that I’ll be self financing and I won’t be able to work for that five weeks,” she said.
Amy said she was looking into various scholarships to help her be able to complete her degree when she stumbled on Inspiro’s program.
“I’m extraordinarily grateful I got it. When I got the call, I was just completely taken aback,” she said.
“The impact this is going to have in my life is just extraordinary. I’m not going to have to work to the bone over the next year to finance myself through the course. I’m going to be able to really immerse myself in my studies and to get experience in the field and just enjoy my final placements rather than being limited financially.”
For Zoe, who also received an Inspiro scholarship in 2018 for her undergraduate degree, she never expected to be selected again.
This time she was the recipient of the $7,500 scholarship for her postgraduate studies in physiotherapy at the University of Melbourne.
Inspiro has also asked Zoe to stay on as an ambassador for the program to help encourage more young people to apply in future years.
“I’m so excited about it just because Inspiro has really helped me through my undergrad and now through my post grad as well. So to be able to share that experience, to hopefully inspire someone else to apply and have that benefit for them, it’s really exciting,” she said.
“There are so many people in the Valley who don’t know about this scholarship, who would be great recipients. So hopefully even just getting some more exposure so people know about it would be an aim of mine as their ambassador.”
Nursing student Danielle, who was unable to attend the ceremony and occupational therapy student Olivia were both the recipients of the minor awards of $2,500.
Olivia said her scholarship will be going towards furthering her studies by doing a short course to help specialise her treatment ability.
“Ultimately I want to give back to the community because if I can further my study and be the best OT I can be, how’s that going to help everybody else,” she said.
“I’ve had personal experience of being helped through health services, healthcare and hospitals. I want to be able to do what they have done for me for someone else. So this scholarship is an amazing opportunity to be able to push me forward into that.”
Inspiro CEO Sue Sestan said as the new stewards of this scholarship, she sees the role as encouraging young people to learn what they can to then hopefully see them return to the Yarra Ranges.
“There’s actually a workforce shortage across the whole of the health sector. Historically, this has been given to encourage young people to take up studies in health but now it’s even more important,” she said.
“We have ambitious young people out there but who are maybe not able to do something purely because they can’t get to the institution of study or whatever it might be.”
Judge Hamish Russell has been involved in the awarding of the scholarships since it began in 2000 by the Lilydale Community Hospital and has since handed out over $170,000 in scholarships.
“I think that is what makes it special. It’s been happening for this community for all that time and it’s been awarded to so many different sorts of people working in different parts of health,” he said.
The recipients of the awards are judged on two criteria: their academic excellence and their involvement in the community.
“We don’t want just takers, we want people who are giving and these girls are absolutely remarkable in the things that they do,” Hamish said.
Zoe has been volunteering at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne since 2015 and has recently become a mentor for other volunteers. She also contributes quite extensively to her university like the buddy program she has established for physiotherapist students.
Last year Amy raised over $5000 for Myeloma Australia after her mum was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2021.
“My family and I have been through a lot in the last couple of years but I’ve really dedicated myself to my studies and wanted to do something to show support for my mum.”
Olivia has spent much of her time volunteering coaching callisthenics and as a trainer for her local football club, as well as working as a swim teacher, all things that have helped become an even better health professional.
“That’s the sort of thing that I find just blows me away. What brilliant people, that they are giving so much already and at the same time are doing so well academically,” Hamish said.
