How CEF is helping Jada Hogg fulfill her dreams

Menindee is a small town in far west New South Wales, with a population of just 551 people, sitting on a sandhill on the bank of the Darling River.  Like most remote areas of Australia, access to quality healthcare is a concern for its residents.

Noticing the challenges locals face to adequate and reliable healthcare, Menindee local, Jada Hogg, wants to be part of the solution. Jada always dreamed of going to university to study nursing, however, the opportunity seemed a far stretch, given how far universities are from her hometown.

No one in her family had ever been to university and it had been several years since any student at Menindee Central School, where she attended, had achieved an ATAR to get to university. But Jada never gave up on her dream and worked hard to secure an early offer at the University of Wollongong studying a Bachelor of Nursing, finding herself over 1000km from home.

Without the help of the CEF it may not have been possible.

Jada is the 2024 recipient of The McLean Foundation – CEF Scholarship, which will support her with $21,000 over the next three years. She said the funding was a major help for her in having to relocate so far away from home to study.

She said her funding would help her cover costs with rent, uniform and transportation when she starts placements, along with education resources such as textbooks.

“The scholarship funds have also helped ease my family’s stress surrounding the costs that come with moving out of home and going to university. By getting the funding from CEF it has allowed me to fully concentrate on my classes this semester,” she said.

When she completes her degree, she said she plans to return to rural and remote areas of Australia to work as a registered nurse and in doing so, help fill a critical skills shortage in those areas.

“I plan to eventually return home to Menindee as a qualified nurse. But I would like to explore other rural and remote areas in Australia to gain plenty of experiences before returning home,” she said.

The McLean Foundation Trustee, Paula McLean, said Jada was the first student from Menindee to be awarded the scholarship.

“It is a pleasure to celebrate our 2024 McLean Foundation Scholarship recipient, Jada Hogg. Jada is a delightful young woman and such a worthy recipient, showing maturity and determination to achieve her goal of studying nursing”, she said.