Our learning support and mentoring programs in 90 Australian communities directly help children in need achieve their goals through education.
View all programs For Alex, the sky is now the limit
16 January 2025
Getting excellent grades in the subject you love is a great feeling for any student. For second-year Engineering student Alex, it’s been a lot of hard work and determination. But now the space, aerospace and defence industries are in his sights.
Looking back on his journey, these goals weren’t always clear. Poverty prevented Alex from having the same educational opportunities as his peers. The wrap-around support from a sponsor like you helped provide Alex with the fair go to reach his potential.
“Early on in my education I struggled at school, largely due to domestic and financial difficulties,” Alex remembers.
Then in Grade 2 Alex was connected with The Smith Family. Sponsorship meant Alex’s family could buy uniforms, books and pay for excursions. These are resources every student needs to fully engage with school. With these expenses taken care of, Alex felt he had a more equal chance.
Writing to my sponsor also reminded me that the world can be caring and positive, which made me happy and pushed me to study harder
“The financial support allowed me to get the stationery and other school supplies I needed. I could go on school trips with more opportunities to better understand the world and that gave me room to figure out what I enjoy learning about.
“I knew I loved science and was very good at maths, so when I wrote my responses in The Smith Family profiles each year, it got me thinking what I wanted to become. But I didn’t really know what my options were. I didn’t know about the world of business – what lawyers or engineers did.
Through sponsorship, Alex gained experiences he may not have had otherwise. In Year 9, sponsorship gave him access to a career program called Work Inspiration. It’s an out-of-school program linking students to real work experiences. Students visit workplaces to increase their knowledge about potential careers. The first time Alex saw robots and machines in action at a pharmaceutical company, he was hooked.
When Alex found out more about the areas of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), his outlook at school changed.
No one in my family had a STEM background, Visiting the pharmaceutical company was the first time I went to a place like that and was a driving force of my STEM inspiration and studies. I went from a C and D student to getting a 96.65 ATAR doing specialist maths and math methods, physics, chemistry, biology and English.
Alex’s education journey is taking off towards a high-flying career. The ongoing financial support of a tertiary sponsorship has meant he can focus on his Mechanical Engineering degree and pursue extracurricular activities – like working on rocket projects!
All students deserve the best possible start to their education and Alex was no different. But like many students experiencing poverty, Alex didn’t have that fair start.
Thanks to a sponsor like you, Alex has had access to what he needs to get high grades and make his engineering career a reality. He’s now looking forward to supporting other students experiencing poverty.
“From struggling at school to being an engineering student working on uni projects, it shows that kids have a lot of potential. Thank you to my sponsor for levelling the playing field,” Alex says. “I look forward to sponsoring kids experiencing disadvantage, so they can unlock their potential as The Smith Family did for me.”
