By YASEMIN TALAT
NHIEN Dinh is one of six young people from the Maribyrnong electorate to receive an Australian Government grant to help her achieve her ambitions.
The Sunshine North resident said she was happy to receive the grant of $500, which helped her academic endeavour.
“I was pretty happy because it really helps with my financial concerns,” Nhien said.
“It’s just enough to cover for the main expenses which is good.”
The grants were awarded under the Creative Young Stars program which provides individual grants of $500 and group grants of $3000 to assist students and young people participate in creative, cultural, academic and community-based activities, events or training.
Nhien, 19, used her grant to attend the Asia-Pacific Model United Nations Conference in New Zealand, a program which is offered through her university.
“I think that this grant is a great initiative by the government – it not only supports young people in activities but it also recognises that we are doing a lot of these things outside our normal school studies,” she said.
Member of Maribyrnong Bill Shorten said the quality of young talent was outstanding.
“Our community is full of young people with many great talents,” Mr Shorten said.
“The exceptional contribution they make to our community and beyond will only increase with the chance to develop those talents further,” he said.
“We want these gifted young people to feel supported and to have their talent and hard work recognised so their confidence and creativity develops.”
“These grants do this but also support our young people in a particular way to make achieving their dream a little easier.”
The next funding round of Creative Young Stars will take place in 2014.
For more information on the Creative Young Stars program visit www.youth.gov.au/sites/youth/news/pages/creative-young-stars
