Chelsea White

Chelsea White, of Narromine in NSW, was the lucky winner of the 2022 APREF Rural/Regional Education Scholarship. 

Chelsea shared her experience since winning the scholarship last year, including commencing her Bachelor of Property Economics degree at UTS this year.

How has your university experience been so far? 

Yeah, it’s been really good so far. I’m loving the individual learning aspect of it. You show up to uni, go to the lecture, and then you do a lot of it in your own time, which I really enjoy. I’m living on campus as well, so I’m loving that. I’ve met a lot of lovely people through college.

How has the scholarship helped your studies?  

It’s been really good. You get a lot of mentoring through the programme, so I’ve got some mentors that are actually from Dubbo. So I’m living in Sydney studying, but I’m from Narromine, which is near Dubbo. I’m going to meet with them when I go home for the break. Obviously, the monetary aspect has helped me with settling into uni and getting settled into the new place.

What are you enjoying about studying property economics? 

It sounds like quite a niche degree and I guess it is to an extent, but once you get into the course, the subjects themselves are quite broad. I’m studying everything from law to construction to economics to property valuation, which is really interesting. And of course, it’s all in a property context. It’s not like you’re doing the same thing all the time. It’s very broad, which I’m really enjoying.

What do you want to achieve from your studies? 

I think I’d love to continue with a little bit of city experience, but not necessarily Sydney. I’d be open to going to another city to work in property valuation. But I think longer term, I would like to go back to a rural area and do rural valuations. I’ve spoken to a few people who are doing that, and they just love it. And I think that rural lifestyle, it’s probably more me as well.

Bernadette Savy

Bernadette Savy, of Launceston in Tasmania, was the lucky winner of the 2022 APREF Tasmanian Education Scholarship.  

Bernadette shared her experience since winning the scholarship last year, having commenced the Deakin Graduate Diploma of Property this year. 

Prior to the degree, Bernadette worked as a Workflow Coordinator in Herron Todd White’s Launceston and Hobart offices for a number of years. 

How has the APREF scholarship helped your studies?   

It’s taken a lot of the pressure off. All the studies are online and so I could go and get a new laptop, which has been helpful. While my kids are at hockey or something else, I can whip out my laptop and study, so that’s been helpful.

What about mentoring and other support?  

I’ve gained access to some people that are working with the API down here, so that’s been good because they all reached out pretty much instantly. They’ve been supportive and have checked in to see if I need anything.

What are you enjoying about studying property? 

It’s been a bit of an eye-opener. I’ve been in the industry doing the admin side of things for almost 10 years. I sort of knew what I was getting into, but until you get into the study, you don’t really know. I’ve been learning about why valuers undertake certain processes and understanding more terminology that’s being used, among other things. I think the thing that held me back for so long was thinking I wasn’t capable and now that I’m in it, I’ve realised I can do this.

What are you hoping to gain from your studies? 

The plan is to become a valuer and become CPV qualified. I’ll be moving out of the residential space that I’ve always been in and moving more into the commercial space at work so that I can follow that path. I’ve got to a couple of extra units at the end of it, and then I’ll start working towards becoming a qualified valuer.