Mumbulla Community Foundation support Bega Valley residents by awarding scholarships to better careers

Michael Pryke, the chair of Mumbulla Community Foundation, said education was part of the foundation's key efforts to support and enable people living in the district.

"We're extremely grateful to our local Bendigo Bank team, the Community Enterprise Foundation, which is the philanthropic arm of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, for their generous support of the program," Mr Pryke said.

"This year they donated $44,000 to enable us to provide these scholarships."

One of the recipients, Lilli, 17, said she was excited to be putting the money towards undertaking a Certificate IV in Arts and Cultural Administration, where she will be able to follow her love for both fine arts and graphic design.

"I just knew that's what I wanted to do," Lilli said with a smile.

"I do logos, posters, and graphics, [and] I'm working on an event right now that's going to come to the Bega Valley.

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"A lot of the work that I do is based around fine arts, so I've gone into graphic design because I see that as a better job opportunity."

Ben, 19, was thankful for the scholarship as it will support him with travels to and from Macquarie University where he was studying a Bachelor Arts and Bachelor of Secondary Education, with dreams of becoming a HSIE teacher.

"I've just always wanted to be helping young people reach their goals and that sort of thing is something that really inspires me," Ben said, hoping to turn his love for Australian modern history into his career.

The economic development manager for Bega Valley and Eurobodalla, Scott Baker from the Department of Regional NSW, said he was honoured to be invited to be part of the assessment panel for the applications.

"[It] is a really good thing to be able to see the breadth of diversity of people studying in the region," Mr Baker said.

"It's interesting to see the amount of people that need to study remotely, and the Mumbulla Foundation are to be commended in terms of supporting those students that need to travel away for residencies and practical's."

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Cr Helen O'Neil said it was important to create more awareness about the grants so more funding comes in, and more Bega Valley residents were supported with scholarships to assist with their chosen career pathways.

"It's just one of the great pleasures, watching young people push themselves into something that's new, challenging and will give them a greater career pathway," Cr O'Neil said.

"The end result is that Bega Valley has more people ready for the jobs that we have ready and waiting for them, [and] even if some do go out [of the Valley], if they know they are supported by their community, they are far more likely to come back."

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