Member wins 2019 Premier’s Teacher Scholarship

November 6, 2018

Copyright Agency author member and teacher Kelly Evans was recently awarded a 2019 NSW Premier’s Teacher Scholarship supported by the Cultural Fund.

Ms Evans, who teaches at Pambula on the NSW far south coast, was chosen to receive the $15,000 NSW Premier’s Copyright Agency Creativity across the Curriculum Scholarship to research teaching methods that promote creativity and innovation.

As reported by her local paper, the Merimbula News, Ms Evans’ research will focus on the intersection of textile technologies and STEM teaching. She will investigate traditional techniques employed in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam before exploring recent innovations in the UK and Europe.

Ms Evans says her students are her inspiration. “I love how creative [they] can be,” she says. “How their imagination can take them on a unique journey, and how – when they are passionate about something – they really have no limitations.”

Ms Evans is the co-author of several textbooks published by Cambridge University Press and Wiley, including Cambridge Hospitality – Recipes for Kitchen Skills. “I have experienced first-hand the deliberate sharing of my work without my permission,” she says. “Copyright ensures that [creators] can decide on how their creative works are to be used.”

Of the 50,000-plus teachers across NSW who applied for the Premier’s Teacher Scholarships, just 20 were awarded.

Ms Evans says, “Teaching is a rewarding, fulfilling, challenging, eye-opening occupation. It does not really matter what school or town you work in; the students that we interact with on a daily basis all have the same needs, challenges and struggles to overcome.”

Ms Evans teaches Technological and Applied Studies at Lumen Christi Catholic College.

Read her full profile here.