Awarding talented students across Australia

The following article has been written by the team at Edstart.

Sebastian Onate-Henriquez is a seven year old social entrepreneur on a mission to start his own green revolution. After learning about the detrimental effects of the fashion industry, the inspiring student from Broughton Anglican College started selling recycled t-shirts through his business ‘The Earth is my Place’.

The design of his t-shirts are from his own drawings with an environmental theme such as Australian wildlife. For every sale, he has pledged to plant a tree to combat the negative impacts of clothing production.

Sebastian is one of the winners in the 2021 Edstart Achievement Awards Program in the entrepreneurship category. Winners receive an award to recognise their achievement and a $1,500 awards grant to fund a project, initiative or training related to their category. Since winning the award, he has partnered with the noissue. eco packaging alliance to secure sustainable packaging for his products.

Helping students pursue their passions

Edstart’s awards program recognises student contributions and ambitions across six diverse categories. This includes performing and visual arts where Year 7 student Holly Robinson from The McDonald College is using her award grant towards a trip to London to attend the Royal Ballet Summer Intensive program.

Other winners include Year 10 student Indiana Tichon from Brigidine College Brisbane who has used her award in the Sustainability and Environment category to launch Indykits, a project to help save our injured wildlife, while soccer star Zahra Ahmed from Kimberley College has started an initiative to help girls overcome financial barriers in soccer.

Building momentum

The program has also helped students build momentum with their initiatives. Year 10 student Evalani Pouli from Stella Maris College has managed to turn her $1,500 awards grant in the social impact category into a $15,000 donation of essential resources such as sanitary products and basic medical supplies to local communities in Tonga.

The talented winners of the 2021 program show that it's never too early to start taking initiative to turn an idea into a reality.

To find out more, visit edstart.com.au/award.