Melissa commenced employment with the Beacon Foundation in January 2012 and is very excited to join the team.

Melissa moved to Beacon from the university sector where she worked in the marketing department. She was fortunate enough in her role to travel overseas and loved experiencing different cultures.

Melissa is very passionate about helping young people and is thrilled at the opportunity to be able to assist high school students recognise their potential.

In her spare time, Melissa loves anything to do with sport and adrenaline rushes. She enjoys running, riding motorbikes and laughing.

Melissa’s dream is to one day publish a children’s book.

New to Beacon in 2012, Brent comes with a wealth of experience in partnering with schools and working in the corporate sector.

Brent is passionate about working with young people and is excited to be the Partnerships Manager for the Greater Brisbane and Gold Coast regions. Based out of the Brisbane office, Brent is keen to build close relationships with all Beacon schools in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast and to further strengthen the fantastic programs already in place.

Outside of this, Brent is recently married to Kylie and enjoys spending the weekend umpiring in the Queensland AFL League and hanging out with his sausage dog ‘Cornflakes.’

Tony Newland started as a presenter for the Beacon Foundation in June 2011 and joined as a Partnership Manager in February 2012.

Tony is a highly motivated Business & IT professional, presenter & trainer that has started, operated and managed two successful businesses, has over 30 years experience in IT, over 15 years experience in business and over 10 years experience in Education and Training.

As well as having hands on experience, he also has the academic experience by obtaining a Bachelor of Business Degree (Major in IT) and a Cert IV in Workplace Assessment & Training.

Tony’s experience, enthusiasm and love of helping people will fully compliment the skills required to build and develop these ongoing relationships between local businesses, the community and the schools within the Pilbara.

Tony’s loves include Aussie Rules (& other sports), technology, travelling, yoga and spending time with his wife and 3 kids.

Kerry joined Beacon in January 2012 as a Partnerships Manager for New South Wales.

She graduated with an upper class Bachelor of Science in Sports Studies in 2002 and went onto gain a post graduate certificate in Education in 2003.

Kerry has a particular interest in working with disengaged and self-conscious young people and has enjoyed seeing the confidence and attitudes of students change through projects she developed throughout her career.

Kerry loves contemporary dance and was the Head of Dance in a Specialist Performing Arts School in the UK for 8 years. Kerry also enjoys Horse Riding and loved spending her weekends competing with her horse in the UK.

Kerry is passionate about developing aspirations and self-belief of young people and engaging and influencing the attitudes and behaviour of the broader community.

Showing young people how they can impact upon their own future in a positive way is just one of the ways in which Kerry hopes to make a difference.

The large, busy crowd included full of senior managers as well as people throughout AMP, AXA, and associated businesses were very keen to hear more about Beacon.

Front and centre for Beacon were National Partnerships Manager, Heather Barton, and one of our new Beacon staffers, Anita Weber who is the new partnerships manager for the south east corridor of Melbourne.

Both were inundated with requests to learn about Beacon, and for information about volunteering. Heather and Anita were so busy they didn’t have time to do their planned Beacon quiz.

“I don’t think we need to talk for another 24 hours at least,” Heather said.

The Beacon stand was amidst 17 other organisations, and Heather and Anita totally cleared the table of every bit of Beacon collateral, and the ever popular Beacon pens!

A lovely bonus for visitors to the Beacon stall was the red-wrapped chocolate hearts carrying the tag: ‘Beacon – putting our heart into ending youth unemployment’.

A great opportunity for Beacon to be involved, with many thanks to the AMP Foundation.

Just a quick note to thank the Beacon Foundation and Komatsu for conducting the 2011 VETSTEP Trades Assistant Program.

My son Cameron attended the course at Maitland TAFE for a period of four weeks

Cameron found the course both instructive and informative. The hands on experience gave a greater appreciation of what work will be involved when he is successful in gaining employment.

Including days on “Polish and Financial First Steps” gave Cameron further insight to the life skills he will need in the future.

Conducting the course, with hours that showed the commitment required to perform in the workplace, gave participants an appreciation for what will be required of them when they gain employment.

The course reinforced to Cameron his desire to gain employment within the heavy plant mechanical field – hopefully in the near future this goal will be achieved as a result of this course.

Again my congratulations and thanks for conducting such a relevant course

Peter Stephenson
Terrey Hills / Ingleside NSW

Christopher Stouhan Jovicic, 16, selects his words carefully when talking about the impact Beacon’s young men’s mentoring program BBQ With The Boys has had on him.

“I always felt that as a person I was less social, a little bit shy, but this has helped me feel confident and helped me with socialising. I have been trying to work with a lot more people and using the skills I learnt from that in everyday living.”

Christopher was one of 20 year 10 students from South Sydney High School who undertook the one day high impact program as part of the Beacon Program, and funded at his school through United Way.

He is careful and considered in his comments, but is eager to talk about his favourite part of the program – making a list of what he wants to achieve in life.

“I put about seven or eight things on the list of what I want to achieve in a certain amount of time and I have already done four of them so far, and it has pushed up my level of motivation and wanting to do something and not being so laid back.”

An integral part of the BBQ With The Boys program is the involvement of mentors from supporting businesses within the school’s community.

Christopher was linked with Nathan from BT Financial and his enthusiasm for this new friendship in his life is obvious, both by the glowing endorsement Christopher gives, but also by the lift in his tone when discussing the mentors.

“They’re very open and positive towards us and very supportive. They really try to help in any way possible and teach us leadership and other ideas and concepts, and teamwork in general.

“I recently had a mock interview and my mentor was there, so I had a conversation with him to see what’s new in his life and what’s new in my life, it was very interesting and I really enjoyed it.”

It’s not just BBQ With The Boys that has had an impact on Christopher, or his 141 fellow year 10 students since the Beacon program started at South Sydney High School in term four last year.

Beacon school coordinator Lesley Borenstein says that when talking with individual students, it is very clear that they have embraced the entire Beacon program.

“At the beginning of the year I had to drag them along to the program kicking and screaming, but now I have to say only the first 20 students who submit their permission notes can be accepted for the particular high impact program being offered at this time.The word has spread, that these Beacon programs like BBQ with the boys are really worthwhile and are a lot of fun. The students see the benefits for themselves.”

Lesley has been teaching a long time and says she has never seen a program quite like Beacon. “I always felt life was about the journey, the journey we take and the people we meet along the way. I am really happy to be involved in the program and to give our students the opportunity to be mentored by the most interesting people from a wide range of businesses and the government sector.

“It’s a win win for all and I believe those who have been involved have really loved the experience with our students and the kids have had an amazing journey.”

For students like Christopher the journey has only just begun. “I’ve had a lot of interaction with business people and learnt a lot about ethics and understanding what an employer wants. All of the programs run by Beacon and United Way have made me a better person, increased my confidence and outlook on life, what I want and what I need to do in the future.

“It’s just made me a better person and helped me focus on my studies and school in general because it is a program that involves all my friends as well.”

Lesley believes South Sydney High School hopefully will see an increased attendance at school, with better school work completion rates and importantly students will see the benefits of working with the staff for better individual student outcomes … all this as a result of having Beacon programs at the school.

“The overall engagement has been a huge success, it is a very positive program. The success of the partnership of our school with the businesses’ social entrepreneurship commitment has boosted the self esteem and expectation for success for our students. I believe our students were always capable to reach for their dreams, but it took the Beacon programs to give them the confidence and new found skills to really see what they could achieve.”

Without the funding support from United Way, Lesley says there is no way she could’ve run as many of the program components as she has, especially given it is the school’s first year with Beacon.

“We are also fortunate to have had other business supporters as well, helping out with supplying  venues, catering and their time to allow the events to go ahead. The business community really got behind us as a school in conjunction with Beacon,” she said.

South Sydney High School Beacon coordinator, Lesley Borenstein with student Christopher Stouhan Jovicic who credits Beacon and the BBQ With the Boys program with helping his personal growth.