The Public Education Foundation, Teachers Mutual Bank and the Harvard Club of Australia are honoured to announce the recipients of the 2021 Principals Scholarships.
The three outstanding principals will undertake a professional education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education that is specifically designed to strengthen the skills of educational leaders.
This year’s Principals Scholars are:
· Teachers Mutual Bank Principals Scholarship – Damien Keel – Yarrawonga College P-12 – VIC
· Harvard Club of Australia Principals Scholarship – Jenny Boyall – Katoomba High School – NSW
· Public Education Foundation Principal Scholarship – Catherine O’Dea- Christies Beach Primary School – SA
Teachers Mutual Bank Limited’s chief marketing officer Nichole Banks said she was delighted to once again support the Principals Scholarship.
“Principals play a vital role in steering our schools and particularly have demonstrated admirable leadership during recent challenging times. The Teachers Mutual Bank Principals Scholar, Damien Keel, is a dedicated educator who focuses on the overall picture of student’s learning and wellbeing needs. We look forward to seeing what Damien brings back to his community from the Harvard experience,” she said.
Damien Keel said he was absolutely rapt to be involved in the Teachers Mutual Bank Principals Scholarship and looked forward to the course.
“I am a passionate educator and always develop ideas/innovation from an evidence base, the idea of attending Harvard University to further develop my leadership capability is very exciting for me. I truly value life-long learning and have consistently completed University degrees over the duration of my career including initial teacher education followed by Graduate Diploma of Educational Administration and Master of Education Leadership – Rural Contexts. To be given the opportunity to attend Harvard University is something that I will always hold as one of the most amazing career and personal development opportunities of my life,” he said.
“It is an honour to be awarded the Public Education Scholarship to attend a Leadership Course at Harvard University. The opportunity to travel outside of Australia to work with other public educators from around the world is an exciting and unique learning opportunity for me as principal. This will allow me the chance to examine leadership from a different perspective and to take some time out of my busy schedule to learn from experts about leading a school,” Catherine O’Dea said of her scholarship.
“This will give me the chance to chance to stop and reflect on my leadership journey. I also feel that as a principal in my fourth year of tenure at Christies Beach Primary that the Harvard Leadership Scholarship will enable me to look at our school community with more objectivity as I think often this gets lost as you become embedded into school culture.”
South Australia’s Minister for Education John Gardner added that it was another great example of the wonderful leaders South Australian public schools have.
Each Principals Scholarship is valued at approximately $16,000 and includes program tuition for one of two prestigious Harvard Graduate School of Education programs: Improving Schools: The Art of Leadership; or Leadership: An Evolving Vision.
