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A platform and a project 

Ella was awarded the prestigious Vice-Chancellor's Leadership Scholarship in 2022, the program’s inaugural year. Valued at $30,000 per year, the Scholarship aims to uplift potential young leaders with goals to inspire others and create positive change in their communities and the world. The program offers tailored financial support and professional development opportunities to push these high-achieving students to the limits of their potential and create the next generation of world-class leaders. 

As exciting as this opportunity was for Ella, she said the pressure of living up to those expectations made her more anxious than anything else. Ella started at UOW in a Bachelor of Medical Biotechnology and spent her first three years of university waiting for a spark to ignite - but it never did. It wasn’t until she started thinking about her fourth and final year of undergraduate study that she realised it was time to make a change. Ella said her experiences at UOW had taught her it was more important to find a field that she deeply cared about than chasing a degree she no longer wanted, and that’s when the idea of switching to study public health in her Honour’s year became reality. 

“In year 12, I knew I was good at studying. I remember thinking, I’m getting the marks, but nothing’s calling me. It took a while and it was a scary decision, but I realised that my original degree wasn’t aligned with the values that I had developed over my time at UOW,” Ella said. 

“When I first started uni, I just felt super directionless and insecure, and so I really struggled with imposter syndrome after getting the Vice-Chancellor’s Leadership Scholarship. I felt like that Scholarship was designed for people who had big plans, and big dreams, and I had none of those. I would actually avoid going to events in first year, because I just felt like an imposter, like I didn’t deserve it.” 

But Ella shared that it was through facing these fears that she found her place and passion at UOW. 

“In my second year, I got invited to a roundtable event at the ¾«¶«´«Ã½ of Sydney about generative AI’s impact on students through the Scholarship. I just went because I felt like I needed to be more involved in this Scholarship. But that was the start of everything for me, because I realised how much I enjoy speaking at those events and talking about my lived experience as a student. After that, I joined the UOW Steering Group, and then the Student Advisory Council as the women’s representative,” Ella said. 

“I would not be the person I am today without that Scholarship. I credit everything to it, because it just opened up so many doors for me.” 

For Ella, the Vice-Chancellor’s Leadership Scholarship was about more than just a financial reward or opportunities to attend events. Ella said that the privileges the Scholarship afforded her opened her eyes to the struggles that other students faced, while also giving her the platform she needed to make a real difference.  

That platform came in the form of Project Period – a student-led initiative with the aim to make period products free across campus. But getting the project up and running was no easy feat, and with little funding Ella found that she had to turn to unexpected places for help. 

“It started off with just getting money from library fines, because we had no money, we had nothing. But we knew we needed to start something to get some data to show the need for the project, meaning that we needed a pilot. After raising some funds, we put baskets of products in the library bathrooms and ran a survey at the same time which got about 400 responses.” Ella said. 

“The response was overwhelming. There were so many people saying they were in financial crisis, they didn’t have access to products, they were also struggling with endometriosis, PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome), not being able to speak on it, having to miss class because they got their period and didn’t have any products.” 

Ella and the Project Period team were awarded the 2025 Gender Equity Project award at UOW’s inaugural International Women’s Day Awards. Reflecting on the day, Ella said the award meant a lot to her, but not because of the recognition – for her, the award reflected that the project had been seen and appreciated by the UOW community. 

“I think word spread a lot, and we were able to convince other areas of the uni to partake in it. So, accommodation on campus got on board, Campus East got a dispenser, and now we’ve gotten SSAF funding for WUSA to get it into other buildings around campus. The project is still at the start, and we’re still really trying to advocate for funding, but it’s definitely going in a positive direction.” 

Finding a home at UOW 

Despite all the tough moments, Ella wouldn’t change a thing about the journey that led her to where she is now. She believes that making mistakes is all a part of the process to finding out who you really are, and that the most important thing you can do at university is not to get everything right, but to take every opportunity you can. 

“You need to embrace the mistakes because that’s where you learn from them. The lesson weighs heavier than the experience. My mentality is that if you have a good gut feeling about something, you should always do it, always say yes to it,” Ella said. 

“That’s what I felt with the Vice-Chancellor’s Leadership Scholarship. I was so hesitant to apply because I didn’t feel like I was worthy of it, but then I thought, why not? An application takes an hour, am I going to scroll on my phone for an hour or just submit the application? And if I don’t get it, it’s fine. And I’ve kept that close to me. Now, it’s like, just go to that event, if you hate it that’s fine but it could be amazing and you wouldn’t know unless you go.” 

Though Ella is unsure exactly what challenge she wants to tackle next, she shared that for the first time, she’s not worried about not having a plan. What’s important to her, she said, is that she now knows her guiding values. 

“Anything could change. What I do know, with my whole heart, are my values. I know what I’m passionate about, and I know what I would like to experience more of, and that’s more community building, advocacy, growth, challenge - that’s what I want.” 

In its 50th year, Ella said that UOW is the place that nurtured those values within her and enabled them to grow. She believes that UOW’s biggest strength lies in its people, and that every person – from staff member, to student, to community – makes UOW a space unlike any other. 

“What makes UOW so special is its sense of community. It feels super connected – you come on campus and you’re in this beautiful nature, you see so many people sitting outside and just chatting with each other. I think a lot of people want to interact with others as well, that’s just not a vibe you get at other universities,” Ella said. 

“Here, everyone wants connection, and you can feel how strong the community is. I think that’s why Project Period was a success. Because the community wanted it, and respected it, you know – the baskets were never misused, because they understood that we need to lean on each other to get something ahead to help everybody. That’s the greatest asset UOW can capitalise on. I think that this community is its strength.”