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Yolande Hutchinson
UNSW Sydney External Engagement
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UNSW Sydney has been recognised for the employability of its students in the Top100 Future Leaders Competition 2021 for the second year in a row, with a record-breaking 37 students named as most employable students. It’s the highest number of students to be selected from one institution since the inception of the awards in 2014.

The Top100 Future Leaders Competition, jointly hosted by GradConnection and The Australian Financial Review, aims to identify the top emerging talent from Australia’s university students. Students took part in a highly competitive process, including psychometric testing, video interviews and participation in an assessment event with top employers.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academic, Merlin Crossley was thrilled with the results and congratulated the UNSW students who made the list.

“It’s wonderful to see so many of our top students recognised last night. UNSW values and continues to promote industry engagement and work-integrated learning opportunities. We are proud to offer students many opportunities to undertake programs that further develop their skills and work experience.

“It’s an honour for UNSW to be recognised as the university with the most employable students for two consecutive years. This follows UNSW being recognised for having post-graduate students receiving the highest starting salaries in Australia, and our high employment rates for both post-graduate and undergraduate students in the recent graduate outcomes surveys."

Two of the UNSW students in the Top 100 were also category winners for highly competitive employer awards, including Bachelor of Information Systems (Hons) student Jessica Lawson who won the Coles IT Top100 Future Leader Award, and Bachelor of Commerce/Law student Alexandra Zoras who won the Ashurst Law Top100 Future Leader Award.

Ms Lawson is part of the UNSW Co-op Scholarship program, which enables her to have three six-month internships with sponsors over her degree. Her first internship last year was with global pharmaceutical company Merck Sharp & Dohme. She is currently in an internship with Westpac ISG.

“The UNSW Co-op Scholarship program has provided me with wonderful opportunities. I feel really fortunate to have been given the chance to have internships and look forward to learning as much as I can in the remaining two years of my degrees,” Ms Lawson said.

Ms Zoras works as paralegal in a litigious Commercial Disputes team while completing her Bachelor of Commerce / Law. She is acting Co-President of the UNSW Law Society.

Alexandra Zoras

UNSW Bachelor of Commerce/Law student Alexandra Zoras. Photo: GradConnection.

“I am most grateful for the support I have received from UNSW. I owe much of my personal development and leadership achievements to the encouragement and guidance received from older students, friends and professional mentors, many of whom UNSW facilitated the formation of my relationship with," Ms Zoras said.

Other UNSW students to reach the Top100 Future Leaders list were: Amy Bentley, Alex Cai, Tiffany Chan, Calvin Ching, Samantha Chung, Ivy Dong, Akchaeya Easswarakumar, Matthew Fu, Desmond Ho, Ryan Jeon, Adarsh Jeggannagari, Daniel Jiang-Zhu, Derek Komban, Vanessa Khuu, James Li, Kate Li, Laurel Lu, Nancy Mao, Brittney Monk, Fay Poulos, Venetia Ridge, Dylan Sanusi-Goh, Brodie Scarfe, Garima Sharma, Tina Sharma, James Trumble, Bonnie Wang, Chloe Wang, Cole Wang, Travis Wu, Cathy Xu, Lillian Yana, Kelly Yoon, Illian Yuan and Wendy Zheng.

The win builds on UNSW’s record in last year’s awards, which saw 27 students named as Most Employable Students.

180 Degrees Consulting (180DC) won the SEEK Most Engaged Student Society Award. 180DC, a student-run consulting firm for non-profits, works with UNSW to deliver unparalleled student experiences such as flying to Melbourne for an agricultural technology conference for a client, or helping another client audit and mitigate their carbon emissions.

The UNSW Business School Most Popular Business and Commerce Employer Award was awarded to Westpac Group. The UNSW Most Popular Graduate Employer Award was awarded to the NSW Government.