ICMS Awards 24 Scholarships

On Wednesday 16 March, ICMS awarded 24 scholarships – the largest number in the history of the college, offering career-oriented education. The combined total of the giving was more than $700,000.

Ann Whitelock Courtney O’Connor leads the Professional Scholarship Program at ICMS and has amassed an impressive array of sponsors over the past five years since she started the program in 2011.

Whitelock Courtney O’Connor said, “ICMS is proud to partner with esteemed and benevolent corporate sponsors that understand our values. The sponsors experience the calibre of industry-ready young men and women they are helping to develop. This is a testament to these partners and it’s what an ICMS education is all about.”

The highlight of the evening was the 2015 ANZ Scholarship winner Andrew MacGregor’s account of life as a corporate trainee banker at ANZ. He said, “I was in the NSW Corporate Banking department, which handled clients with lending limits between $30 to $120 million. Although the size was daunting, I was expected to perform the role of an assistant manager. This included completing annual reviews on clients and discussing them with the team, sitting in on client briefings and seminars as well as meeting with industry connections.”

He added: “By the end of the internship I had made industry connections I will certainly value for life. The mentoring from senior staff at ANZ will help shape the rest of my career.”

Darren Dablowski, Director Corporate Banking, ANZ also spoke at the ceremony. He had a lot of praise for Andrew’s contribution. “I got to spend a lot of time with Andrew over those three months being a mentor and also helping him move through the bank.” Dablowski said himself and his colleagues felt a lot of personal satisfaction from mentoring the students.

“The quality of candidates coming through this college is amazing,” he added. Andrew is now studying his second year and the 2016 ANZ Scholarship winner Kyle O’Dwyer looks forward to this same valuable opportunity.

So impressed with the calibre that the ICMS scholarship program attracts, Kevin Stock Australasian General Manager, Michael Hill Jewellers, decided that the company had to have two winners rather than just one. Kevin said, “I look forward to long and prosperous relationships within Michael Hill with the winners of the Michael Hill retail management scholarship. It was a tough decision to give out only one scholarship, so I went back to the CEO and said I’m not happy with just giving one so we have awarded two scholarships.”

Manly Council, which is a corporate sponsor, had its Mayor Jean Hay in attendance along with a host of VIP CEOs and top executives from ICMS Scholarships sponsoring corporations, such as ANZ Corporate Banking, HOSTPLUS, NSW Rugby League, Michael Hill Jewellers, ACCOR Hotels, 2Day FM, the PGA, and Golf NSW along with the Courtney O’Connor Scholarship Fund

“Our college is the best in Australia for a career-focused education. Parents understand what they are getting when their sons or daughters undergo that special ICMS training,” commented ICMS President Dominic Szambowski.

He added: “The result is professional, business-ready students that gain an excellent education and are given opportunities to take part in what well could be the largest scholarship program for a college our size in Australia.”

ICMS has several scholarship opportunities for new and current students. Information can be found here.