Study Melbourne Leadership Labs 4Impact is a free initiative by the Victorian Government, which is Australia's largest international student leadership program.

It empowers motivated international students to form teams and contribute towards creating innovative solutions to real-world problems related to one of the three United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

  1. ENVIRONMENT  (13.3 Climate Action): Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning.
  2. ECONOMY (8.5 Work and Economic Growth): By 2030, achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value.
  3. EQUALITY (5.b Gender Equality): Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women.

Sign up via Eventbrite

How it works?

  • Each team is coached by a specific mentor to help them think creatively, work efficiently together, and achieve inspiring results.
  • Open to students of all academic backgrounds and year levels, with no prior experience required.
  • After 10 weeks of virtual learning and working together, the teams will pitch their innovative ideas to a live judging panel, and the winning team will receive $5,000 worth of prizes.

Benefits

Problem-solving: Students will learn how to find the root cause of a problem and identify how to solve it.

Critical Thinking: Students will learn how to assess and evaluate global challenges from various informed viewpoints.

Teamwork: Students will learn how to work effectively in a team and work towards a common social impact goal.

Communication: Students will learn to communicate their project mission, values, problem and solution throughout the series and at the final pitch event.

Project Management: Students will learn how to manage a project from start to finish. From the original idea to prototyping, branding and marketing to the pitching stage.

Leadership: Students will turn their vision for a United Nations Sustainable Development Goal into reality by setting goals, taking action, and connecting with the people around them.

Registration period: 1 Feb 2023 – 16 Mar 2023

  • Individuals: If you would like to sign up as an individual or invite a student to participate in Study Melbourne Leadership Labs 4Impact, please sign up via Eventbrite.
  • Groups: To join Study Melbourne Leadership Labs 4Impact as a pre-formed team of 3 to 6 students, send an email to stephanie@campusconsultancy.org with the first names, last names, and emails of all team members.

4Imact Mentors 2023

Jessica Gower – Environment Theme

Pursuing her passion for performing in theatre, TV and film for 20 years led to some fun life experiences and career challenges. In 2020 while studying for a “Master of Arts Screen: Business and Leadership” degree at the Australian, Film, Television and Radio School she researched the impact of waste and CO2e generated through producing film and television entertainment. To address this significant problem, Equoia was formed in 2021 with a mission to enable practitioners to take responsibility and create content with the smallest impact to our environment with clean tech solutions.

In 2022 Jessica completed the EnergyLab Women in Climate and Energy Fellowship and the LaunchHUB Start-Up Program at RMIT Activator. Equoia won Best Pitch Award at the LaunchHUB showcase and are recipients of the RMIT Activator Capital Fund.

Puven Pather – Environment Theme

"Puven Pather was born in South Africa and moved to Australia in 1982. Puven began his career as a stunt performer and was graded as a Stunt Co-ordinator in 2019. With a Graduate Diploma in Directing at AFTRS Puven has a diverse skill set and has been working in the film industry for over 30 years.

In 2021 Puven co-founded Equoia to reduce CO2e generated through screen production by introducing mobile clean technology solutions for screen and entertainment industry to support the systemic and complex changes required to meet the largest challenge the screen industry and society has ever faced, climate change.

In 2022 Puven completed the LaunchHUB Start-Up Program at RMIT Activator with Equoia winning Best Pitch Award at the showcase and are recipients of the RMIT Activator Capital Fund.

Michelle Ridsdale – Equality Theme

As a parent of a child with Autism, her experience in advocacy and, through her volunteer work in Autism and Disability. She has met too many young people struggling to find and make friends. Many also experience challenges finding employment. Seeing her own son suffer from feelings of loneliness and disconnectedness, she decided to set up a community that could safely facilitate the building of supportive tribes and allow our young people to develop relationships that are meaningful for them as well as supporting their journey into employment.

She has over 20+ years experience working with leaders and teams, across cultures, countries, and industries. The last 9+ years have been in Executive roles, including Chief People Officer roles in Technology organisations. I am also a Board Director for several not-for-profit organisations.

Sunny Liu – Economic Theme

Sunny Liu is a former international student from China and has been in Australia since 2014. She has worked as a journalist, teacher and now a communications adviser at the Victorian Government. She’s the vice-chair of not-for-profit organisation Kindness Shake supporting international students with free employability programs, cultural immersion and festivals. She’s passionate about giving back to the local community and is always keen to help international students build their life in Australia.