Aspire Awards raising the bar
A YEAR 12 graduate set on opening up his own law firm was one of many students to be granted incredible opportunities by local businesses at an awards night earlier in the week.
On Tuesday more than 23 awards were presented at the 11th annual Aspire Awards Night hosted by the Business Liaison Association.
St Mary’s Catholic College Year 12 graduate Aryan Nair won the Australian Institute of Office Professionals (AIOP) Award.
He was rewarded with $900 and plans to use that money to help him further his dream of opening up his own law firm.
“I plan on putting it towards my university education by trying to get a diploma of business administration,” Mr Nair said.
He has just finished Year 12 and has been accepted into James Cook University to study a business/law degree.
Mr Nair knew from the age
of 12 that he wanted to be a lawyer.
“My end goal is that I want to start my own law firm with the diploma and masters in business administration after my bachelor (degree) that would give me some knowledge
to successfully open and run a law firm,” he said.
Everything Mr Nair has done so far has been to get to his aspired career, including choosing subjects like business studies, accounting and legal studies in high school. He has
also done a Certificate IV in Crime and Justice Studies.
“I wanted to try to help and give back to the community and make the community a bit better in a way,” Mr Nair said.
More than 550 people attended the awards on Tuesday to honour and celebrate the high school students.
BLA executive officer Kerrie Stanley said she was happy to celebrate the future generation of leaders as they embarked on their next journey.
“The Aspire Awards provide incentives and opportunities for secondary students across Far North Queensland in a range of curriculum areas,” she said.
“The awards are judged by an industry panel and are also financed by businesses across a range of industries.”
This year the awards were supported and sponsored by over 46 local companies, which made it possible to provide over $40,000 of scholarships, prizes and bursaries to students such as Mr Nair.
“Each year, a growing number of businesses in Cairns and beyond join with us to give the youth of FNQ some incredible opportunities and career pathways to take advantage of as they exit Year 12.”