The AlburyCity Medical Scholarships Program provides up to $5,000 to local students from Albury Wodonga and surrounds, who have been accepted into a degree in medicine at the University of NSW.
The aim of the program is to encourage doctors to return to regional communities where their skills are desperately needed once they have completed their studies.
The first recipient of the 2023 Medical Scholarship is Ms Charlotte Benson.
Charlotte completed her HSC at Xavier High School last year and finish with the second highest ATAR of her school with 94.60, coming first place in four of her subjects. Charlotte also received the Rosa Gold Crest Award for academic excellence. Xavier High School distribute this award to students who maintain 3 or more A's over 5 years of study between Year 7 and Year 11.
Charlotte also took part in many extracurricular activities, including being House Captain of McAuley House in Year 11 and 12, a Peer Support Leader providing support to incoming year 7 students, and a member of the International Women’s Day Committee in Year 11.
Charlotte is passionate about Rural Health and intend to focus on reducing rural health inequities once she graduates as a General Practitioner and establish her practice regional Australia.
The second recipient of our 2023 Medical Scholarship is Mr Lachlan Carty.
Lachlan completed his HSC at Albury High School last year and was Dux of his school, coming first place in five of his subjects. Lachlan completed is high school studies with an ATAR of 97.5.
Lachlan took part in many extracurricular activities including being High School Prefect and House Captain, representing Victoria in the Australian Athletics championships for 3 years from 2019 to 2021, and representing Country NSW in the National Futsal championships. Lachlan is also the recipient of a string of local community groups’ Excellence Achievement Awards for his academic achievements in Year 12.
Lachlan aspires to work in rural areas to help provide greater services to people that live in rural towns and reduce the disparity between services provided in rural and urban areas.
AlburyCity Mayor Kylie King said the program is important to support rural medical education and retention of young people in our region.
“I’m so proud that we can support two more bright young minds as they embark on their journey into the field of medicine,” Mayor King said.
“As we all know we need many more medical professionals in our region, and I can only hope that one day they will bring their skills back home."