Awards for Art & Design students

Two of Monash's Art & Design students recently won prestigious awards for their work.

Graphic design student Ben Wundersitz won the 36th international cover design competition for student designers run by the New York-based PRINT magazine. His artwork is to be published on the cover of the magazine, which has a worldwide circulation.

Closer to home, Kurt Ramholdt won the student award for industrial design in the Victorian Design Award. His design, Olivacuum, is a vacuum cleaner which also looks like a helpful pet.

The Victorian Design Awards, initiated by the Victorian Government and the Design Institute of Australia, aim to identify emerging talent among student designers and give them an opportunity to be promoted.

Life stories

The School of Historical Studies is holding a second interdisciplinary conference on life stories and personal narrative in history.

The conference, to take place between 14 and 16 July, will include papers from people working in the fields of anthropology, history, biography, cultural studies, literary and visual studies, psychology and social theory.

The school is seeking offers of papers on the following themes:

• life stories and national histories;
• memory and history;
• case studies and historical interpretation;
• individual and collective biography;
• death, mourning and narratives of loss;
• self and other in life stories;
• family stories/ family secrets;
• subjectivity, sexuality and identity;
• feminist lives; and
• stories of place.

Abstracts of about 100 words should be sent to Barbara.Caine@arts.monash.edu.au or Esther.Faye@arts.monash.edu.au by 15 March. We would also welcome suggestions or offerings for panel discussions.

Success for Monash College students

Monash College's inaugural graduating class achieved outstanding success, gaining a high credit average in their first semester of university studies at Monash.

Monash College was set up by the university to provide an alternative pathway for students to access courses at the university.

After successful completion of a Certificate in Business, students progress to a Diploma of either Business or Information Technology and then articulate into the second year of a Monash bachelors degree in business, commerce, economics or information technology.

One of the graduates of the program, Ms Dewi Rooslani, completed her first semester in the Bachelor of Business Systems with four high distinctions. She says that international students find the college helps them adapt more quickly to the different education and cultural environment of Australia before commencing their university studies.

Further information on Monash College programs can be found at http://www.monash.edu.au/intoff/courses/certdip.htm