Citizen Scholar Award

Students will develop 21st-century graduate attributes of critical thinking, value-based decision making, personal responsibility, and global citizenship, and are encouraged to question the status quo, embrace change and uncertainty, and engage with their community. Students will step outside their comfort zone, meet new people and gain a deeper understanding of both themselves, their community and global issues.

The objective of the Award is for students to develop confidence, skills, knowledge and become an engaged, aware citizen. This includes:

1. Critical Thinking
2. Cross cultural competencies and global citizenship
3. Resilience
4. Process driven
5. Team Work and collaboration
6. Communication
7. Creativity
8. Ethical leadership
9. Critical reflection
10. Adaptability and mistakability

• Appears on your Graduation Statement.
• Encourages you to build friendships and networks within and outside your area of study.
• Provides recognition for the Bachelor of Applied Leadership and Critical Thinking (BALCT).
• Gain valuable experience and professional skills such critical thinking, communication and leadership development.
• Build confidence, self-reflection, personal and professional growth.
• Opportunities to act on and develop personal passions and interests.
• The Award is designed to allow you to include much of what they are already engaged in, such as volunteering and University leadership roles.

• The Award is available to all Academy students regardless of your degree program.
• Enrolments are open at the beginning of each semester. You may join the Award at any point in your degree provided you have at least 40 credit points (or part time equivalent) remaining on your undergraduate degree to be eligible.

• Throughout the Award students will need to accrue at least 25 points in each of the four strands. Points can be earned by completing activities, attending events and building your knowledge base.
• In addition to the 25 points, you will need to complete a minimum 60 hours of Community Engagement requirement before completion of your degree.
• Level 1: Explore must be completed in the semester of enrolment in to the Award program. Community Engagement hours can be accumulated for the activities you were involved in from the academic year in which you joined.

Apply to be part of the Citizen Scholar Award. You will be directed to log into CareerHub to access the application form.

The Award offers a tiered approach to participating, acknowledging that everyone has busy schedules and student may be juggling paid work, families and studying to maintain their GPA.

The three levels within the Award enables you to develop your experiences, personal efficacy, and leadership skills.

You will expand your Professional Development, Personal Development & Wellbeing, Community Engagement and Global Citizenship proficiencies.

To complete the Award students need to be self-directed, reflective and motivated.

At each level students need to complete a form and the required activities before progressing to the next level.

The three levels are:

Level 1: Explore

The first level of the Award is the ‘exploration’ stage. At this level students start to identify skills, knowledge and competencies relevant to their future career and personal interest as well as identify the communities they connect with.

Level 2: Refine

Once students have identified the competencies, skills and knowledge, they would like to develop, they enter the ‘Refining’ stage, where they start tailoring their personal Citizen Scholar journey

and begin participating in projects, volunteering, events and any other activities.

Level 3: Reflect

This level allows students to personally ‘reflect’ on their journey, unpack their learning and personally assess their growth throughout the Award.

Students will be finalising and logging their service learning projects, volunteering or community-based research projects as well as their strand points activities.

Strand one: Professional Development Strand

The goal of the Professional Development strand is to encourage you to build confidence around navigating your future career. You will identify goals and activities that will help clarify your career interests.

Strand two: Personal Development and Wellbeing Strand

This strand is designed to enable you to prioritise self-awareness, health and wellbeing. You will explore and identify goals to develop your Personal Development & Wellbeing.

Strand three: Community Engagement Strand

The goal of the Community Engagement strand is for you to make a  difference in the community through volunteering, community, advocacy, research and service learning projects. There is a minimum requirement of 60 involvement hours. This can be across several different projects, however they will need to be a blend of on and off campus projects.

Activities associated with the Community Engagement strand include:

• Volunteering/service learning internship with a community organisation
• Involvement with MATES/LEAD/AIME/ Representation or other University volunteering programs
• Work with a researcher on a community connected research project

Strand four: Global Citizen Strand

The Global Citizen strand is designed to increase your awareness of global issues, to appreciate diversity and understand cultural sensitivity.

Global Citizenship refers to a sense of belonging to a broader community and common humanity. It emphasises political, economic, social, religious and cultural interdependency and interconnectedness between local, national and global communities (UNESCO).

The citizen scholar program pushes you to reflect and critically think through the decisions you make every day to help you understand and identify the gaps in your approach towards your goals both in the personal and professional capacity. It has aided me in bridging that gap by bringing to my disposal a wide range of opportunities and tools to hone my skills, further my understanding and recording my progress in a way that has positively reinforced my efforts. The Citizen Scholar Program has pushed me to be a well-rounded, better informed and engaged citizen of the community which are traits valuable to any organisation that I will be a part of during my career.

Mahad Mustafa

I believe it’s my social duty to be a citizen scholar and grow myself so that I can give back to the community. I think it’s important to use your intellect, your skills, your privilege and talents to benefit society as a whole and be a team player. The citizen scholar award is a way for me to formally engage with those beliefs and express them officially in my CV. Hopefully it will show future employers what I stand for and allow me to fulfil my purpose of giving back and engaging with community throughout my time at university.

Maddy Saysanavongpheth

I liked the idea that it will be printed on my graduation certificate also, to enhance my opportunity for employment. I think the Citizen Scholar will benefit my future career in teaching as I have already improved my ability to work in teams and be a leader and will continue to learn skills that can be useful in employment.

Ash Scott

I do much within the community and try to show my daughter the importance of this. There are so many things within university and local community to become involved with.

Michelle Boyle