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Welcome to Western Evening - Parramatta Transcript Video Playing | Western Sydney University. Background music. End video. Jim Micsko: Good evening. My name is Jim Micsko and I am the Manager of Widening Participation Engagement Marketing here at Western Sydney University. Thank you all for joining this Webinar. I would like to commence our evening with an Acknowledgement of Country: We would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands we are meeting on. Tonight, the team and I are on Darug lands and we pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people joining us tonight. With respect for Aboriginal cultural protocol and out of recognition that its campuses occupy their traditional lands, Western Sydney University acknowledges the Darug, Eora, Dharawal and Wiradjuri peoples and thank them for their support of its work in their lands in Greater Western Sydney and beyond. Joining me tonight is Barbara Stephens, the Project Officer for the Parramatta region. We both extend a warm welcome to the year nine student cohort of the 2020 Fast Forward program. And so too their families that are joining us tonight. Just a few points of housekeeping before we commence; • The presenter’s audio and video (including screen shared content) will be recorded. As attendees, your video and audio are not being transmitted and you will not be visible or heard during the webinar. You will also not be recorded. Further to this, a recording of this webinar may be published online for reference. Attendees will not be visible or heard in this recording. • Participation in the ‘Chat’, ‘Question and Answer’ and/or ‘Poll’ sections of the webinar is completely optional. By participating in the Chat you consent to the information shared in these sections being collected and used by Western Sydney University for learning purposes and to build a catalogue of ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ for the benefit of other prospective students. • Any personal information collected by Western Sydney University during the webinar will be handled in accordance with its Privacy Policy and Privacy Management Plan which can be accessed online. In the event of technical difficulties interrupting this webinar, the content will be recorded and a link emailed to you to access the presentation. If you move your cursor down the bottom of your screen you will see some icons – Q&A. We will be utilising these functions throughout the webinar. In the Q&A feature, you can post questions which will be answered by the panellists throughout the webinar. Once questions are answered, they will be visible by all participants. You can ask questions anonymously by selecting the ‘Send Anonymously’ option. I would particularly like to welcome our special guests who are joining us here tonight, Executive Directors, School Performance - Ms Sylvia Corish and Dr Glen Patterson. As well as Directors, Educational Leadership from Education NSW - Mr John Kennedy, Ms Judy Goodsell, Ms Lisa Porter, Ms Anne Bahnisch, Ms Karen Bryant and from the Catholic Education Office, Parramatta Diocese, Ms Maura Manning. Each student participating in the program will have received a copy of the ceremonial booklet that goes along with this evening’s event and their own copy of the book “Letter to my Teenage Self”. Please see your teacher tomorrow at school if you don’t have these. Fast Forward is a longstanding program which commenced at Western Sydney University in 2004. The program is an initiative aimed at introducing these selected year 9 students to all that higher education can offer and assisting them in their High School studies along the way. Fast Forward encourages students to strive for their personal best and to see tertiary study as a realistic and viable post-school option. Our students participate in experiential learning which develops their skills and fosters familiarity with the University environment. Fast Forward is an aspiration building program where we work to raise the aims and goals of all students involved in the program. Educational aspirations have a substantial effect on educational outcomes. The higher our students aim, the more likely they are to achieve their goals. It is the primary work of the Fast Forward program to provide opportunities for students to engage in aspiration-building activities and expose them to the many different pathways available to them to continue their education beyond year 12. To our year 9 students, congratulations on being selected to participate in Fast Forward. Along with your schools, we’re going to help you dream big, aspire to great heights, and work hard to fulfil the unlimited potential you all possess. You’ll now hear from Professor Peter Shergold, Chancellor of Western Sydney University who will deliver the official welcome for the evening. Video Playing | Peter Shergold Welcome Address: Hi, I am Peter Shergold and I am the Chancellor and proud to be the Chancellor of Western Sydney University and on behalf of the University I do want to extend a very warm welcome indeed to the Widening Participation Fast Forward program. Let me start by acknowledging the Aboriginal people, the Darug people of our area who have been the traditional owners of this land on which we are meeting. Darug people have lived along the riverbanks, have hunted the Cumberland Plains we know for at least 30,000 years; that's quite remarkable. And it's in that spirit that I want to acknowledge that deep past, their elders and, in particular, the young Aboriginal leaders of the future. You know this Widening Participation Fast Forward program has been going quite a while. I came to the university as Chancellor back in 2011. And I think it was in my very first week that I went along to a Fast Forward program and I have loved this program ever since then. And even when I first attended, this was a program that had been going six or seven years, indeed, since 2004, we've had approaching 15,000 students who've gone through the Fast Forward program. I'm a very, very strong and committed supporter of it. I see enormous value for schools, for teachers and for principals, for parents, but in particular for students as you go through to the end of year 12 and then beyond. So this is a program that is designed for you and that means is designed for people who've got drive and confidence and ambition and talent. And you are joining a Fast Forward program that has significantly increased opportunities out here in the Greater Western Sydney region. Across the range of campuses that we have from, you know, Hawkesbury and Campbelltown in the West to Parramatta in the centre of Sydney but to our east. I think this is a really important program. Of course, I would be delighted if you would make a decision to come to Western Sydney University, to be part of the Western community. But I don't really mind, what I want to make sure is that this program persuades you to open up and look at the extraordinary range of opportunities. Educational opportunities, training opportunities that extend beyond year 12. That's what this Fast Forward program is all about. And the key message for me is, this is a program, I believe, which does something that is profoundly important. Namely, it helps you to learn how to learn, so that then you can continue to learn throughout your whole lifetime. And that's important to you to make your life more worthwhile. But it's important for you in finding future employment in a very uncertain world and also becoming an active citizen and community member. That's what this program is about is whetting your appetite to learn and to keep on learning and to see the value of continuing to learn through what I hope will be your long lives. It's a program that's going to open up all sorts of opportunities. There's going to be workshops, there’s going to be on campus days, you're going to be able to find mentors. I hope, I believe that you'll find it exciting and different. And I hope, that it will strengthen you, to help you to be resilient, to give you the opportunities to follow your passion and give you the potential to succeed. Not because you're perfect in everything. I'm certainly not perfect at everything and I have continued to learn through my long life but you've been selected because, we think that you have the willingness to try. That you've got the ambition to succeed. That's why I think you can really make use of this exciting program. Over the next four years, you will be able to look at a whole range of opportunities to explore your talents, to develop yourself. I hope you're going to learn how to solve problems, often complex, how do you communicate effectively by writing or talking, how to be digitally savvy, how to be able to collaborate on projects with others, how to be able to work on your own with little direction. Fast forward, I hope, will show you how to be creative, to push you to be entrepreneurial, to learn how to be a leader and lead others. It's going to be a program that offers you students the opportunity to meet current university students, meet the lectures at the university and I hope on every occasion to embark on a new adventure. I'm hoping and I believe that this Widening Participation Fast forward program will help you to be the very best version of yourself.

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