The inaugural winner of an exciting new $50,000 fellowship, named in honour of former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer, is a worthy recipient with a well researched and robust plan in mind.

The Fellowship is aimed at supporting an individual who is passionate about making a difference to rural and regional Australia, and Hudson, who nudged out 200 fellow applicants to secure the award, says she's on a mission to help students in these communities access the right roadmap to fully realise their potential.

While she loved growing up in Australia's cherry capital, Young, 160km north-west of Canberra, Hudson could not help but notice the many young people around her who struggled to see their own potential, as distance and lack of resources clouded their visions for the future.

While studying at university, Hudson worked in what's now called the Equity Diversity and Inclusion Team at UNSW as an ambassador, facilitating workshops that empowered underrepresented students, including those from rural and regional backgrounds, to access higher education with confidence. 

“In the role I delivered programs to students from rural and regional areas who were hoping to come to university and also lower socio-economic status high school students,” she tells EducationHQ.

The aspiring psychologist at present teaches undergraduate psychology students at University of NSW (UNSW) and University of Technology Sydney (UTS), in their first to third years and across various courses.

She is hoping to do her masters in clinical psychology next year and has worked in research at Black Dog Institute in the youth suicide prevention team.

A great deal of the work she undertook at the Institute involved creating and delivering school-based programs.

Hudson says True North will build self-belief in rural and remote students, helping them identify their strengths, values, interests and capabilities, and turning this insight into simple next steps, so choices come from self-belief, not self-doubt.

“When I saw the fellowship I thought, ‘what a perfect opportunity to use everything that I've learnt in my working career so far to create something that will have an impact',” she says. 

In coming up with the content for her program idea, True North, Hudson was inspired by her best friend Lara, who left school at the end of Year 10.

“Lara was very bright, very capable, intelligent, got great marks - but left school because she didn't see a clear path forward or didn't have any ideas of what she wanted to do,” Hudson explains.

Having worked in a café, then doing a beauty apprenticeship, Lara has since studied primary teaching and is now thriving in a career for which she has great passion.

When asked by Hudson what changed and how she finally found her calling, Lara said it came down to building self-belief.

While she didn't have a clear idea about her future while at school, she also didn't want to complete her education because she didn't think something like teaching was even a possibility for her, Hudson explains.

“So I guess that's the inspiration of this program is, at that time when students are making life-shaping decisions around Year 10, whether it's decisions for what subjects they'll do for Year 11 or whether they'll go on to do an apprenticeship or leave school to work, I just want them to be making these decisions from a place of self-belief.”

As part of True North, Year 10 students will receive help in identifying their strengths and goals and put that knowledge towards taking steps to success.

“In Year 10, some students know exactly what degree they want to study, and have picked their subjects, but for the majority, they have no idea, some don't even know what they're interested in, or what their strengths are,” Hudson says.

“So lot of the program content will be focused around identifying what are their strengths, what are their values, and just really getting them to connect with who they are, and what matters to them, and what they're interested in.”

The aims of the program are twofold, Hudson says.

“The first thing is to really instil this self-belief and growth mindset - and then it’s about connecting students with the right resources at the right time.”

A practical program where students will learn to orientate their own career compass based on their skills and ambitions, True North will not necessarily emphasise higher education in the cities.

Apprenticeships, traineeships and other working pathways are all within scope as different people will have varying needs and aspirations, Hudson says.

In coming months, Hudson will work with regional and rural students to co-design and tailor the program.

“True North builds that self-belief, helps students identify their strengths, values, interests and capabilities, and turns this insight into simple next steps, so choices come from self-belief, not self-doubt.

“Firstly, we’ll establish what they already know, so we can tailor it to the level that’s most appropriate.

“After that, all of the content and ideas I have will be presented to the students, they will say, ‘oh that seems really engaging, we'd love to learn about that’, or ‘that isn't very interesting to us’, and we’ll also determine the best format that they’d like the program delivered in, so we can ensure that it is as engaging as possible for them.”

At this early stage, Hudson isn’t sure how far across the country the program might stretch, but she’s hopeful its impact will be far-reaching.

“I really want the program to have a massive impact, so I guess the initial plan is we'll do the co-design, and the pilot, and then yeah, I'd love to see it scaled.”

Fischer, who died in 2019, was renowned for his passion for better education outcomes for people living outside of the big cities.

His widow Judy Brewer says he would be “thrilled" with Hudson’s win and her vision.

"He used to get very frustrated that people didn't listen to those who lived in country towns - that there were always solutions being imposed,” she says.

"Tim always believed very strongly that rural and regional Australians were the best people placed to have the answers to their problems."

The Tim Fischer Fellowship is provided by the Country Education Foundation (CEF). For more information, click here.