Jack Lo Russo always wanted to be a teacher but ended up doing a decade in IT before a new $10,000-a-year scholarship allowed him to make the switch to his dream job.
The federal government had 3000 applications for its first 1000 scholarships under its Be That Teacher campaign, and another 4000 will be handed out in coming years.
Mr Lo Russo, who is now studying a Master of Secondary Teaching at UNSW, was inspired to teach by his grandmother, a public school teacher, and now feels like he is fulfilling his destiny thanks to the grant money.
“Now I’m taking the leap and doing what I always wanted to do,” he said.
He said with 14 weeks of unpaid full-time prac work — in classroom training — he would have struggled to cope without the scholarship money.
The scholarship announcements coincide with the launch of news.com.au’s Australia’s Best Teachers campaign.
We have joined forces with corporate partners Officeworks, Teachers Mutual Bank, and Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools to celebrate the nation’s best educators.
It is part of a concerted push to drive greater respect and recognition for teachers.
Other scholarship recipients include Michael Long from Newcastle University who is completing a Master of Secondary Teaching, Perth’s Emily Williams who is studying a Bachelor of Primary Education at Charles Sturt University and Claire Datsun from SA’s Flinders University who is doing a Masters of Primary Teaching.
After a long career in marketing, film and television, Ms Datsun decided to pursue teaching as a way to make a difference in the community.
Earlier this year the 49-year-old returned to university for the first time in three decades and has no regrets.
“It’s been a wonderful experience, it’s tough but I have no regrets,” she said..
For students like Ms Datsun, who is also a mother of two teenage girls, these financial scholarships are “invaluable”.
“It means everything when you’re a mature student to leave existing careers to retrain whilst you’ve got a mortgage and children to look after,” she said.
“It’s the difference between doing it or not so I feel blessed and honoured to have the opportunity to go back and re-educate myself and forge my way in a new career.”
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