One of the first graduates from Australian Catholic University’s Western Civilisation program has won a prestigious international scholarship to pursue her studies in the United States.
Helena Skundric will join the famed “Great Books” program at St John’s College, a liberal arts college in Washington DC, thanks to a Ramsay Centre Postgraduate Scholarship.
Ms Skundric has just completed a Bachelor of Arts (Western Civilisation) at ACU, where she was part of the first graduating class. She is one of just five Australian students to win a scholarship to the Master of Arts in Liberal Arts at St John’s College.
“It has been a bit of a whirlwind. I start over there next month, so it’s all happening very fast,” she said.
“It’s an incredible opportunity. I get to explore some of the greatest books ever written with students from all over the world. It’s a bit of a dream to be honest, I know I’m immensely privileged.
“I’ll be there during the presidential campaign and inauguration, so it’s like having a ringside seat to history in the making.”
After graduating from Mercy Catholic College in Sydney, Ms Skundric considered everything from teaching to becoming an air hostess. She spent a semester studying international relations at Sydney University but found her place at ACU’s new Bachelor of Arts (Western Civilisation).
“It was radically different from what I’d been doing at Sydney Uni. The Socratic method really changes the game, because you’re trying to find out what other people think, you spark off each other and it leads the conversation in amazing directions,” she said.
Ms Skundric is a proud advocate for the study of Western Civilisation and the arts.
“This is part of our society’s history and our intellectual inheritance,” she said.
“I think it’s important to understand how our laws came to be, how democracy came to Australia, why we value poetry and literature. It’s important to consider who we are, what is the world, and how else it can be. And I think that’s what the arts offer.”
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Western Civilisation graduate wins prestigious scholarship to study in the US (ACU)
