Prize details

Doris Macdonald Award

Value:

$5,000 each (subject to available funds)

Each year, up to two awards may be offered by the selection panel.

Closing date:

No application required.

Eligibility

• The award is eligible only to postgraduate students enrolled in EPSY 535.
• Selection is contingent on full-time enrolment as a student at Victoria University of Wellington.

Information

The Award was established through the Victoria University of Wellington Foundation in 2019 with a bequest left by the late Doris Macdonald. Doris graduated from Victoria University of Wellington with a BSc in 1954, a DipEd in 1958, and a BEdStuds in 1973. On leaving secondary school, she went to work in the office of Victoria University of Wellington, and while working there completed a BSc degree. After six years working at Victoria University of Wellington Doris joined the Geological Survey of the DSIR. In 1953 she became a guidance officer in the Department of Education. Doris completed an additional Bachelor of Education degree and eventually rose to head of the Wellington office where she worked until her retirement in 1988.

The award assists postgraduate students at Victoria University of Wellington in the study of vocational counselling and practice in an educational context. The award will be made annually on the basis of academic merit to a postgraduate student completing EPSY 535: Exploration of counselling theory and practice in an educational context.

The recipient will be selected by the dean of the Wellington Faculty of Education, or their nominee, and a selected panel of senior colleagues from the School of Education. Where no suitable recipient is identified in a given year, the available funds can, at the discretion of the decision-makers, be rolled over to the next academic year.

Recipients are required to write a letter of thanks to the donor's family within one month of receiving this award.