Message from the President and Vice-Chancellor (Alumni Newsletter - 2018)

Welcome to this edition of dKin Times.

Earlier this month we celebrated the achievements of a group of truly exceptional Deakin alumni at the 2018 Deakin Alumni Awards. In celebrating their achievements and success, we inspire current and future students to become the next generation of change makers.

Congratulations to our 2018 Alumni Award winners Mrs Carley Mchome (Alumni Community Service), Ms Celia Pacquola (Young Alumni of the Year) and Mrs Karen Inge (Alumni of the Year).

It’s always been one of my favourite events but this year was particularly spectacular, complete with a fireworks display as we celebrated 40 years of Deakin Alumni.

Over the last two months, I’ve had the pleasure of attending alumni events with our chapters in Beijing and London. It’s a great privilege to have the opportunity to meet with you and hear your stories. Every day, Deakin alumni are making a difference in the world as leaders in their professions, in industry, in business and in their communities.

There’s quite a lot happening in the Deakin community over the next few weeks and I encourage you to join in. On 22 November there’s the final alumni event of the year – Celebrating 40 years of Alumni at Collins Square in Melbourne. There’s the 2018 Deakin Diwali Festival of Lights at the Waterfront Geelong. The PaperSpace Student Exhibition of Architecture in Geelong and Melbourne on 8 November. And on the 16-18 November, Australia’s only non-fiction literary festival, Word for Word, will be held at the Geelong Library and Heritage Centre. It’s an inspirational program and I encourage you to check it out. This year Word for Word is inviting its audience to ‘Get Real’ by inviting robust, hard-hitting and frank discussions on a wide range of important topics including racism, asylum seekers, social justice, Indigenous issues, true crime, artificial intelligence and memoir.

I hope you’ll enjoy reading this month’s dKin Times, and that you keep in touch with us whether it be at one of our events, or on social media through our Facebook and LinkedIn groups.

Jane den Hollander AO
President and Vice-Chancellor