Student Leadership Awards

All students enrolled in any unit of study during the 2022 calendar year at Victoria University and Victoria University Polytechnic (VU) are eligible to apply for a Student Leadership Award.

The Student Leadership Awards do not cover sporting or academic achievements, please refer to the VU Sport Awards, or contact your discipline college for information about college academic awards.

Applicants must be prepared to give evidence that:

• they are enrolled or have been enrolled in the current year
• they have not been the subject of any substantiated misconduct claims.

Previous award recipients cannot apply for the same award in the subsequent year.

When answering the Selection Criteria it is recommended that you apply the STAR technique.

The STAR technique provides a framework for presenting information in response to Selection Criteria. It’s a way of providing clear examples or evidence of your skills, knowledge and approach to work. For each criterion, use the following elements to structure your answers.

Situation

Describe the situation/environment you were in.

Task

What goal were you working toward?

Action

What did you do? Set out the steps you took to achieve the result. Be detailed.

Result

What was the outcome? What did you accomplish? Did you achieve the goal you set out to achieve? What did you learn? Promote yourself and your achievements.

This award recognises the outstanding contribution of a current VU international student to the VU community; this student embraces what it means to be an international student at Victoria University: the University of Opportunity and Success.

The recipient of this award will receive a $300 prize.

Additional eligibility criteria

Must be an international student enrolled at an Australian VU campus.

Selection criteria

1. Describe what you have done to benefit the VU and/or broader international student community and tell us what the impact was.
2. Tell us about how participating in these activities helped you develop your critical thinking/problem solving and/or creativity skills.
3. Tell us about how participating in these activities helped you develop your communication and/or collaboration skills.
4. Tell us about how participating in these activities helped you develop your persistence, adaptability and/or social and cultural awareness.
5. Tell us how your activities align with one or more of VU's values of Always WEST: Welcoming, Ethical, Shaping the future, being Together.

This award recognises the outstanding contribution of a current VU postgraduate coursework or research student to the VU community; this student embraces what it means to be a postgraduate student at Victoria University: the University of Opportunity and Success.

The recipient of this award will receive a $300 prize.

Additional eligibility criteria

Must be either a coursework or research postgraduate student.

Selection criteria

1. Describe what you have done to benefit the VU and/or broader postgraduate student community and tell us what the impact was.
2. Tell us about how participating in these activities helped you develop your critical thinking / problem solving and/or creativity skills.
3. Tell us about how participating in these activities helped you develop your communication and/or collaboration skills.
4. Tell us about how participating in these activities helped you develop your persistence, adaptability and/or social and cultural awareness.
5. Tell us how your activities align with one or more of VU's Values of Always WEST: Welcoming, Ethical, Shaping the future, being Together.

This award is sponsored by Alumni Relations.

The Victoria University Alumni community includes 270,000 graduates living and working in over 136 countries. If you are a graduate from VU, Victoria University Polytechnic or any of our predecessor or off shore institutions you automatically become a lifelong member of our alumni community.

Our alumni live the VU values of Always WEST: Welcoming, Ethical, Shaping the future, being Together. This award, proudly supported by the Alumni Relations team, has been designed to help the recipient receive the best chance of achieving their goals as they transition from student to employee.

This peak award includes a 12-month mentorship from an alumni leader in your chosen area and a cash prize to help you kick start your professional wardrobe or invest in some tech.

Eligibility criteria

• Must be a student at Victoria University completing or just completed their final year of study in 2022.
• Must have participated in at least one VU Leadership Activity (e.g. LEAD Program, Students as Partners, Clubs Executive, VU Academy, VU Hanger, VU Career Mentoring Program etc.).

Selection criteria

1. Outline how you have made strong progress with your academic pursuits during your time at VU.
2. Describe how you have made clear and positive voluntary contributions to their community; which may be the student community and/or the broader community. Please differentiate as clearly as possible between voluntary and paid work.
3. Please give examples of how you operate in a way that encourages and supports inclusion, diversity, excellence and respect.
4. Outline how you plan to interact with, and get the most from, your mentor experience if you are the recipient of the award.
5. Provide any further information to support your nomination which has not already been provided in the Award criteria responses. This may include, for example, any particular challenges you have overcome in your journey to success and any information not covered by the Award criteria that may support the overall nomination.

Optional additional information

Provide supporting testimonials from lecturers, colleagues, community leaders or peers to demonstrate why you are deserving of this award.