C.A.S. Hawker Scholars

It's been almost twenty years since I was fortunate enough to be awarded a Hawker scholarship. My years studying at the Australian National University and living at Burgmann College as a Hawker scholar were some of the most formative and happy of my life. I met some of my closest friends during this time—and some are fellow Hawkers!

Since graduating from university, I've worked overseas as a foreign correspondent for Reuters, the Financial Times and now The Economist. It's surreal to think I once frantically crammed The Economist before debating tournaments while a Hawker scholar -now I work there.

I've reported from all over the world: from the corn fields of rural Kansas to a hairdresser in North Korea and aboard a cargo ship in the South China Sea. I've also had the opportunity to make two longform, narrative podcast series. One is called Scam Inc and tells the story of the global rise of online scams; the other, The Prince, is about Xi Jinping, China's leader (I'm standing outside his homestay in Iowa in my photo!).

I feel enormously lucky to have a job that I love so much. Undoubtedly, my time as a Hawker scholar helped shape me and prepare me for my current work, whether it was learning how to write in my law degree or better understand how Asia works in my Asian Studies degree or think through ideas in all the late-night corridor chats we had living at Burgmann.

Thank you to the C.A.S. Hawker Scholarship for making it all possible.