Lizzie Mahon: Yalari Alumna

"The scholarship wasn't just a way of getting through secondary schooling in a prestigious school. Yalari became an extended family — a support system you could rely on."

I am from the Meriam Mir mob from Erub in the Torres Straits. However, I grew up in Charleville in South West Queensland. I went to the Glennie School in Toowoomba, and graduated in 2013.

I didn't think I ever wanted to go to university, so after graduation I completed an on-the-job traineeship at the University of Southern Queensland with a Certificate III in Business. I then moved back to Charleville where I developed a keen interest in health. I completed a Certificate IV in ATSI Primary Health Care Practice, where I was engaged as an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioner for a year before enrolling into the University of Southern Queensland to complete a Bachelor of Nursing. I am now working as a Registered Nurse, ATSI Health Practitioner and Clinical Supervisor at an Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation in Toowoomba, Queensland. I am preparing to enrol for medicine, with ambitions of becoming a General Practitioner in the future.

Being the recipient of a Yalari scholarship changed my life significantly. I was provided with a great education, the opportunity to excel in sports and create life-long contacts. The scholarship wasn't just a way of getting through secondary schooling in a prestigious school. Yalari became an extended family — a support system you could rely on. Yalari practices family and culture just as much as education, which is the most empowering way to get an Indigenous child through school. Speaking from personal experience, I lost my way for some time and couldn't find any path. However, the staff and friends from Yalari continued to see my future potential, providing me with the additional guidance and support I needed.

To give back, I like to volunteer in various ways with Yalari; to help out an extraordinary organisation that gave me so much. Yalari incorporates the CORRIE values (compassion, openness, respect, resilience, inclusiveness, excellence) and instils this into all of their practices, embedding this into the future generations of Indigenous leaders. Yalari looks at the big picture while still supporting the needs of the present. It is so much more than just a scholarship organisation.

Thank you.

Lizzie Mahon's Yalari journey was made possible by the generosity of the Queensland Playground Association.