OUR PATRONS

Andrew Gaze AM

It is so important to create the right environment for success whether at school or in sport. The talented young people selected to join the Skyline Education Foundation Australia VCE Bursary Program have the impact of their financial disadvantage reduced by being provided with an extensive range of educational and financial benefits. Participants work together and are encouraged and supported to set goals, understand how they learn, and take responsibility during the comprehensive two year personal development program. The feelings of success created by being selected and taking part in the VCE bursary program can be life changing.

Justice Lex Lasry

I sit as a judge in the Criminal Division of the Supreme Court of Victoria. In most courts on most days we see the result of missed opportunities. We hear about the unexploited potential of young people who, through drugs or for other reasons, have been diverted into criminal activity. We see the tragedy that will accompany futility in the life of young people whose education has been token rather than real. This organisation, and its ambition, is vital in the modern community. The aptitude and talent of young people should not be inhibited by their circumstances. SEFA's efforts to foster and encourage these young people is a vital investment, not only for them, but for the whole community.

Dr Colleen McCullough AC

As Patron of the Skyline Education Foundation, I would like to draw attention to its work, which is dedicated to ensuring that specially talented children have the kind of educational opportunities they need over and above the "basics". Economic hardship, geographical isolation and / or parental indifference prevent many talented children from securing sufficient education of high enough quality to ensure that potential becomes kinetic so that promise become reality. If children are the future of a nation, then from the talented ones a nation obtains the intellectual fruits and properties that enhance its factual, economic and humanitarian standing. Governments can only do so much, dealing in overall matters and social issues that largely overlook the talented child, assuming that the talented child will succeed without government help. Many an Australian talented child has failed to reach his or her true level of achievement thanks to domestic upheaval, the special difficulties of a non-English-speaking home, or even the absence of a family of any kind. Non-governmental organizations like the Skyline Education Foundation Australia are a vital part of the struggle to give talented children the education they not only deserve, but are entitled to as an inalienable right.