Students honoured

Another prospective rural medical student has been awarded the City of Karratha’s highest educational honour at a special ceremony in the council chambers last night .

The Walkington Award has been running for 32 years and grants the winner $5,000 to put towards tertiary education.

Last year’s winner Anshula Ashish is one year into a medicine degree at Melbourne’s Monash University.

At a ceremony on Monday another St Luke’s College graduate, Sophie Sparks, was bestowed the 2016 Walkington Award.

Ms Sparks said the award would ease the burden on herself and her family of relocating to Perth for study.

“I have been saving for quite a while and even then I have still know my savings wont go quite as far as I thought they would,” she said.

“I would like to return to Karratha or somewhere rural where I have the opportunity to help out a community.”

Ms Sparks said her family had been pivotal in guiding her through a stressful final year of school.

“They have always reminded me that where ever I go in life they will still support me,” she said.

City of Karratha Mayor Peter Long said it was humbling to hear of Ms Sparks’ and other previous recipients desire to return to Karratha.

“We want to make education one of the things we are known for in Karratha, to me that’s part of being a City,” he said.

“I love to see the second generation of a family making a success of it here.

“I think it is important for them to go away and get that experience in the outside world but it is great to have them wanting to come back and I think there are more and more people like that now.”

The award is named after founding director of the Karratha College Al Walkington, now known as North Regional TAFE.