The Roberta Sykes Scholarship Foundation and the Harvard Club of Australia
are offering a scholarship to provide talented Indigenous Australians with
the opportunity to undertake up to two years of postgraduate study at Harvard
University.
The scholarships are directed at Indigenous Australians who have the potential
to become leaders in their field of study and in their communities. The inaugural
scholarship will be offered for study at Harvard commencing in September 2011.
The value of the scholarship will be at least $60,000 per annum to be paid over
the course of the scholar’s study. The scholarship covers tuition, travel costs and
living expenses. Only one scholarship is available at any point in time.
The scholarship will only be awarded to candidates who have been accepted
into a postgraduate degree program offered at Harvard University. In most
circumstances, candidates will need to hold a First Class or upper Second Class
Honours degree in order to be accepted.
Applicants are required to submit their Harvard application by the deadline
required for the degree program they wish to pursue.
Applications for the 2011 Roberta Sykes Harvard Club Scholarship will close on January 31, 2011.
Roberta Sykes Harvard Club of Australia Scholarship
For further details on how to apply, please contact the
Roberta Sykes Scholarship Foundation by email at:
enquiries@robertasykesfoundation.com.au
About the Harvard Club of Australia Group
The Harvard Club of Australia Group is the organisation for Harvard alumni. Formed
in 1961, the club’s aim is to promote fellowship amongst alumni and to assist
Australians wishing to study at Harvard. For more information on the club and its
programs, please visit: www.harvardclub.org.au
About Roberta Sykes
Roberta Sykes was the founder of Black Women’s Action in Education Foundation
(“BWAEF”), which was formed in the early 1970s. BWAEF grew out of a need for an
organisation whose primary focus was to support Australian Indigenous women scholars in educational pursuits. From the mid-1980s,
BWAEF enabled a number of Indigenous women to undertake postgraduate studies at
Harvard. Over time, the ambit of funding was expanded to include support for Australian Indigenous men attending Harvard, and then also for Indigenous postgraduates to attend other overseas universities.
Roberta was awarded the Australian Human Rights Medal in 1994 for her tireless and valuable work in the arena of Indigenous affairs.
In 2009, the name of BWAEF was changed to the Roberta Sykes Indigenous Education
Foundation and a new Board of Trustees was appointed to carry on Roberta’s important work.
Roberta Sykes’ first anthology of poetry, Love Poems and Other Revolutionary Acts, was published in 1979. Since then, she has published poetry, essays and articles, in addition to Mum Shirl: An Autobiography (ghost-written by Roberta) and Snake Dreaming. The first volume of Snake Dreaming, Snake Cradle, won the 1997 Age Book of the Year, the 1998 National Biography Award and the 1998 Nita B. Kibble Literary Award.