Fulbright winner finds inspiration in the desert
18 April 2005
Alice Springs educator Metta Young has been named the 2005 winner of the Fulbright Professional Award in Vocational Education and Training (VET).
The award, which is sponsored by ANTA, will fund a three-month research trip by Ms Young to the United States to study the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.
Ms Young, 47, will explore the keys to social and economic development on American Indian settlements. She hopes to identify the skills and policies government and business need to work more effectively with Indigenous Australians.
“There is 400 years of experience to learn from in the United States, whereas in Central Australia we have a much shorter joint history with our Indigenous people,” Ms Young said.
Ms Young has spent the last 10 years working with Indigenous people in the VET sector and is employed by the Centre for Appropriate Technology in Alice Springs. She also works with the Desert Knowledge Co-operative Research Centre on a number of projects relating to Indigenous education.
As part of her Fulbright research, Ms Young will look at how U.S. agencies have transformed the way they operate and deliver services in response to Native Nations’ social and economic objectives.
“It’s good to have a research project where the focus is on us and how we interact with Indigenous people, rather than always focussing on them and how they might need to change,” she said.
Ms Young’s end goal is to see her findings spread across government and business to help improve educational, social and economic outcomes for Indigenous Australians.
The Fulbright program is an educational scholarship created by U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright and the U.S. Government in 1946. Aimed at promoting mutual understanding through international education exchange, the program currently operates between the U.S. and 150 other countries.
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