Victoria University honours outstanding nursing students

The late Karen-Leigh Edward, former Professor of Nursing and Head of Victoria University’s Nursing and Midwifery program, made an enormous impact both professionally and personally.  

The outstanding scholar, administrator, and international expert in mental health, resilience, gender-specific healthcare and practice-based research, passed away last year, but thanks to her family’s generosity in establishing the Karen-Leigh Edward (KLE) Nursing Award, the much-admired academic’s legacy will continue to inspire a generation of health-care professionals. 

At an event based at VU City Tower on Thursday 8 May (Karen-Leigh's birthday), students, alumni, friends, colleagues and family members of Karen-Leigh gathered to remember a colleague and friend and bestow several nursing awards on outstanding students. 

VU’s Professor Karen Dodd, Executive Dean, College of Sport, Health & Engineering was both a colleague and friend of Karen-Leigh.  In an emotional speech, Professor Dodd described the event as an “extraordinary” day.

I had the privilege of knowing Karen-Leigh for many years. I admired her greatly. Her optimism, can-do attitude and innovative spirit made her a sheer joy to work with. 

Karen-Leigh's son Ben delivered a powerful speech. “'Be proud of the work you do, the person you are, and the difference you make', my mother wrote this quote down as she reflected on her own leadership and the qualities she felt were important to instill in other academic leaders,” Ben said. “It is our family’s hope that the winner will take this award and use it to motivate themselves to deliver excellence in healthcare.”  

Ben presented the inaugural KLE Nursing Award to second year nursing student David Schreurs. Along with the $2500 cash prize, David also received a custom designed nurses’ pin, which features an emerald, in honour of Karen-Leigh's birthstone.  

On receiving the award, David said “This is the biggest honour of my life. I’m thirty-three years old and just over a year ago I thought that marketing and video production wasn’t really aligned with who I want to be in the world. Waking up every day, trying to ease people’s suffering is something I find motivating. VU has given me an opportunity to reignite my spirit and discover my true self.” 

Bank First are long-time supporters of VU and this year CEO, Michelle Bagnall, awarded $500 prizes to the three outstanding nursing students: Abigail Luna, Alana Gigliuto and Meryl Crossley. “This is one of my favourite days because we get to give away money,” said Ms Bagnall.  

The event also included a $5000 award in honour of the late Muna Rahman. Muna’s sister, Mariam awarded the honour to VU nursing student Soniya Thapa.  

2023 recipient, Thi Nguyen, took to the podium to thank her former teachers at VU and talked about the impact the award had on her career. “I came here as in international student. Receiving this scholarship has made a huge difference to my life. Now I’m a registered nurse, and I donate money every year to help struggling students in Vietnam.”