Jack Beetson wins UTS FASS Alumni Award & Chancellor's Award

Descriptive transcript

I'm just so pleased that we're actually all able to be here in person to recognise the achievements of our award winners.

Your vital contributions are just so important and your commitment to social justice, to improving the lives of others, not just in Australia but globally.

Tonight's event is a real highlight of the year. It makes you amazed to see all of the achievements of alumni, what they've done, the diversity of those achievements both within their professions and also the work that they do for the wider community.

I didn't see UTS as just a university but an institution of hope, providing a platform to young adults to fulfil their dreams, allowing them to catapult themselves into limitless possibilities.

I'm very pleased to present the 2022 UTS Young Alumni Award to Angelique Wong.

The leadership opportunities, the personal and professional development opportunities and the work ethic that it instilled in me, I feel is unrivalled between what other universities could offer.

I was given that jump board to fly high at UTS and with the belief that there is nothing impossible, because impossible in my dictionary means I am very much possible.

Thank you UTS for recognising, empowering and motivating me to be stronger, better and an agent of positive change in society.

I feel so incredibly honoured and humbled to be here amongst such incredible alumni who are also receiving awards.

I feel really proud actually to be associated with UTS because it's influenced so much of the choices I've made over the course of my career.

We have such shared interest in wanting to make business a force for good, so I am really, really proud but really delighted to be here tonight.

This award, it's very humbling, I think, is probably the best word.

You never do it for awards, but I think acknowledgement is important when you put your life into a particular area of work like I have in terms of human rights, so it does mean a lot.

What I'd like to achieve in the coming years is, I'd love to see the literacy campaign model that I'm working with rolled out across the country and not just be available to Aboriginal people but to non-Aboriginal people as well.

Human rights are a funny thing, they have no race. If your human rights aren't being met or they're being violated, it doesn't matter who you are. So I think that's critically important.

I believe that our life is full of defining moments, but none of us should be defined by any one moment.

You get so many knockbacks in your life, you know. So many people say no, so many people say we can't afford it, it's not in the budget, it's not this, it's not that. My answer to that is we can't afford to do nothing. That's the thing we can least afford, is not doing anything.

I'm a great believer that if you're not passionate about something, step aside and let someone who is passionate about that do it, and go and find something you are passionate about. That's the advice I give my kids today. It's the advice I give any young people. You know, if you find something you're passionate about you'll automatically be good at it because you're passionate about it and you'll never work a day in your life.

The inspiration that comes from the contributions that our award winners have made to their professions and society is just quite extraordinary and it's very humbling actually to hear about the scale of the aspiration. There don't seem to be any boundaries that we've heard tonight. There are no limits and if UTS can inspire that, it's certainly done its job.

Descriptive transcript

I'm just so pleased that we're actually all able to be here in person to recognise the achievements of our award winners. Your vital contributions are just so important and your commitment to social justice, to improving the lives of others, not just in Australia but globally.

[Music]

Tonight's event is a real highlight of the year. It makes you amazed to see all of the achievements of alumni, what they've done, the diversity of those achievements both within their professions and also the work that they do for the wider community.

I didn't see UTS as just a university but as an institution of hope, providing a platform for young adults to fulfil their dreams, allowing them to catapult themselves into limitless possibilities.

I'm very pleased to present the 2022 UTS Young Alumni Award to Angelique Wan.

The leadership opportunities, the personal and professional development opportunities, and the work ethic that it instilled in me, I feel is unrivalled compared to what other universities could offer.

I was given that jump board to fly high at UTS and with the belief that there is nothing impossible, because impossible in my dictionary means I am very much possible.

Thank you UTS for recognising, empowering and motivating me to be stronger, better, and an agent of positive change in society.

I feel so incredibly honoured and humbled to be here amongst such incredible alumni who are also receiving awards.

I feel really proud actually to be associated with UTS because it's influenced so much of the choices I've made over the course of my career.

We have such shared interest in wanting to make business a force for good, so I am really, really proud but really delighted to be here tonight.

This award, it's very humbling, I think is probably the best way to put it. You never do it for awards, but I think acknowledgement is important when you put your life into a particular area of work like I have in terms of human rights, so it does mean a lot.

The inspiration that comes from the contributions that our award winners have made to their professions and society is just quite extraordinary and it's very humbling actually to hear about the scale of the aspiration.

There don't seem to be any boundaries that we've heard tonight. There are no limits and if UTS can inspire that, it's certainly done its job.

[Music]