Sarah Spottiswood (2012 winner)
Ms Sarah Spottiswood has been awarded the Sir John Monash Medal for 2012 by the Faculty of Law.
Sarah is passionate about women’s rights and the law. In 2011 she volunteered at the Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. WAO is a Malaysian NGO which works towards the elimination of discrimination against women. At WAO, Sarah was responsible for creating a public information brochure about the rights of migrant domestic workers to change the attitudes of household employers.
She was also a legal intern at Victorian Women Lawyers (VWL), a non-for profit organisation which promotes the interests of women lawyers and engages with legal and social justice issues that affect women. At VWL, Sarah researched and wrote a report identifying how to address the unmet legal needs of migrant and refugee women in Victoria.
Sarah also has a long-standing commitment to fostering cross-cultural understanding and respect between people from different countries. In 2010, She was one of 11 Australian delegates to the Ship For World Youth Program run by the Government of Japan. The program allowed 250 young leaders from 13 different countries to discuss solutions to global challenges such as inequality, corporate social responsibility and the UN system. As part of this two-month program she travelled to Japan, India, the United Arab Emirates and Singapore to contribute to local cross-cultural understanding campaigns.
In 2011, she was the only Monash undergraduate student to receive one of twenty Australia-wide Prime Minister’s Australia Asia Endeavour Awards. As an Endeavour scholar she was able to study law and undertake internships in Hong Kong. Following her year in Hong Kong, Sarah was selected as an Asia Literacy Ambassador for the Asia Education Foundation. In this role, she aims to share her experiences of engagement with Asia and Asian-Australian communities, to inspire young Australians to see the benefits and opportunities that come with understanding Asian communities.
In 2006, Sarah was involved in the creation of a still ongoing exchange program between Danila Dilba Aboriginal Health Service in Darwin, Australia, and Fintona Girls’ School in Melbourne. The project has been running for 5 years and continues to give students the opportunity to contribute to the advancement of indigenous health and to learn about inequality in Australia.
In her first year of university, Sarah made a considerable commitment to promoting a sustainable environment through her volunteer role as a Project Director of an environmental sustainability project through AIESEC, the world’s largest student-run organisation. In the following year, she was a Co-Director of the global issues education portfolio at AIESEC Monash. Sarah has also been a note-taker assisting students with a disability for the Monash University Equity and Diversity Centre since 2010.
Sarah is committed to using her Monash Law degree to undertake public interest lawyering. Sarah recently completed her Honours Thesis which focused on the Australian Government’s tobacco plain packaging laws and how to best balance the protection of public health in the international arbitration brought by Philip Morris to challenge these laws. She was also awarded runner up in the 2010 Monash University Paper and Oral Competition for her essay about the Victorian Charter of Human Rights.
She has worked in a legal policy role as a Summer Clerk at the Commonwealth Attorney General’s Department, where she was involved in criminal law reform projects. She has also worked in the Office of International Law at the Attorney General’s Department. She has recently commenced a graduate position at Australian Government Solicitor, where she hopes to continue her passion for public interest lawyering that she was able to develop as a student at Monash Law School.
Last year, Sarah was awarded the 2012 Young Achiever Award for Law and Social Justice by Rotary Club of Melbourne in recognition of her contributions to social justice and the community.
Sarah has made these contributions whilst maintaining a High Distinction average across her studies. Her academic success resulted in her being selected to study as an exchange student at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Hong Kong, where she also excelled.
See also: