The federal government’s scholarships are worth as much as $67,000 and awarded to undergraduates to live, work and study in 40 locations across the Indo-Pacific region.

Ashley Eadon plans to travel to India and then take up an internship at the Australian embassy in Tokyo, while Jade Bujeya will study in South Korea.

For Ms Eadon, the journey was a chance to hone skills as she prepared for a career in peace-building, conflict resolution and education. 

“I thought Japan would be a good place to learn about that, hopefully, at the embassy in Tokyo,” she said.

Before that, Ms Eadon plans to spend three months at the Lady Shri Ram College for Women in New Delhi.

“India has one of the world’s fastest growing economies. There are massive numbers of people there and the country has a lot of potential on the world stage,” she said.

“But its challenges are interesting to me from a sustainable development perspective.”

Ms Eadon previously helped establish Dear Cris (Connecting Rural and International Students), a program helping regional students make friends with people from different backgrounds to broaden their awareness and combat racism.

“Dear Cris is essentially a pen-pal program connecting students to those either interstate or overseas,” she said.

The program’s pilot ran this year, with plans for primary students at three Bendigo schools will take part next year.

“With technology advancements, people aren’t limited to just where they are. It’s all about expanding people’s horizons and getting them to think bigger - to think globally,” Ms Eadon said.

Related: Dentistry scholarship recipient Nicole Reii Wong says childhood condition inspired her to give back

Ms Bujeya plans to study at South Korea’s Sogang University, studying advanced French, mathematics and physics.

“It’s a very rare combination. There aren’t many universities that cater to all of those fields at an advanced level,” she said.

Like many people at her stage of study, Ms Bujeya was unsure what she would use her skills for, but hoped to spend at least a little time teaching in an underprivileged country.

“As a woman who would be teaching mathematics, I feel I could be a great role model for young girls in countries where female academics are virtually unheard of,” she said.

“I also just really enjoy teaching people who want to learn and are really, really passionate.”

Dear Cris is currently looking for schools who would like to participate. For more information, click here.

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