In this Issue - Brunswick Secondary College

THE BRUNSWICKGraemeClark OrationGraeme Clark is a renownedscientist, well known for hisinvention of the bionic ear,giving hearing to the deafand impaired worldwide.Casey Goodman and I, together with Science Coordinator,Anna Madden, had the privilege of being VIPguests at the ‘Graeme Clark Oration and Dinner’ onthe evening of Monday the 29th of April.The Oration is an award night consisting of a onehour talk by the Graeme Clark award recipient.The winner this year, Geoffrey Lamb, was chosen dueto his work with the reduction of poverty worldwidethrough the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.Geoffrey Lamb’s talk was titled “Global Health,Economic Growth and the End of Absolute Poverty:helpful evidence and hard challenges”.Mr Lamb described the wonderful work of his andmany other foundations on the issue of poverty andhealth, and the link between the two.He outlined that 35 million had been spent inAustralia alone on HIV, Vaccines and education since2000. However, he also stated to the shock ofCasey and I that one in six Australian children still livein absolute poverty, proving there is still much moreto do even in our country.Other information he shared included the fact that in1981, 1.9 Billion people lived in absolute poverty.This was dramatically reduced to 1.2 billion peoplein 2008. In 1960 20 million children were dying ayear. In 2001 was reduced to 6.9 million a year.Geoffrey LambHis message was that there is amazing progressthroughout the world in reducing poverty.However, this does not mean we can becomecomplacent, we must still continue to act toreduce poverty!After the inspiring talk, we were lucky enough toget a photo with Mr Geoffrey Lamb before sittingdown for a delicious three-course meal that demonstratesjust how blessed we are in Australia.After the oration, we appreciated the meal evenmore than usual. During the dinner many doctorsand scientist approached us curious about the newgeneration, asking about our aspirations and goals.We were also able to learn about them.For example, we met Dr.Honeyman, who hasworked in the biology research sector discovering aconnection within the body to aid people with type1diabetes. Professor Len Harrison works at the GlenInstitute, doing research on the immune system.His research is based on attempting to aid in thetreatment of diseases that cause immune system toattack your own tissue. Both Scientistsare very inspiring and intelligent people.Overall our time was educational and motivating.We were proud to represent the school. We justhope the students of the future can ask themselvesas we did “What will we do to impact positively onglobal change?”Rachel Biazzo, Year 12