By CASEY NEILL
KEYSBOROUGH’S Juwita Jouhari wants to stand beside, encourage and support the community’s most vulnerable people.
The 19-year-old is studying a diploma of community services at Chisholm Institute and took home the Youth Enterprise Award for her efforts at the Greater Dandenong Chamber of Commerce Premier Regional Business Awards on 13 April.
MC James Sturgess said the award was one of his favourites.
“It inspires the youth of this region to achieve,” he said.
Juwita has set her sights on a career tackling child abuse and youth homelessness.
Accepting the award, she thanked her mum and grandma and her Chisholm teachers.
“Without them I wouldn’t have known how much to push myself,” she said.
When receiving her nomination last year, Juwita said she’d always struggled with education.
“I was always that student in the corner,” she said.
“But I realised that the more I push myself, the more I grow as a person.
“I’ve always wanted to work with people who are most vulnerable.”
In five years she hopes to have finished her current diploma plus a case management or community development diploma.
Fellow Keysborough resident Courtney Pastean and Narre Warren’s Tom Cunningham were also finalists for the Youth Enterprise Award.
Courtney has won outstanding student awards for her beauty coursework at Chisholm Institute in Dandenong.
Mr Sturgess asked her: “How the hell do you win the student of the year award?”
“I don’t know,” she replied.
“Ask my teacher. I was really shocked.”
Accepting her nomination, the 17-year-old recalled getting into her mum’s make-up bag to play dress-ups and feeling empowered by the result.
Courtney wants to help others feel the same way and dreams of running a free service for people feeling self-conscious about their appearance due to illness and accidents.
“I want to bring empowerment back to people,” she said.
She’s going to America in two months to “experience life” before returning to studies at Chisholm in 2017.
She plans to check out the US beauty industry during the trip.
Tom started computer systems engineering studies at Chisholm in 2013 and has a grade point average of 90 per cent.
“How the hell do you do that?” Mr Sturgess asked.
Tom replied: “Just lots of study and effort putting in the hours that you need.”
He said that hands-on time with his teachers had helped a lot.
The 22-year-old has landed a job at JB Hi-Fi thanks to his studies.
“They’ve got an education department. They put their employees into school for tech support,” he said.
“My study really put me forward for that sort of role.”
Tom said there were endless opportunities in information and communications technology (ICT) across various job sectors, from health to engineering and finance.
“I want to gain as much job experience as I can and make a good name for myself,” he said.
