Big fundraising thanks!

We were so fortunate to have the Drinks Association support KDF for the third year running for their 2025 International Women’s Day fundraising lunch, where they raised over $19,000 (up from $12,000 last year)! We would like to again thank Drinks Association CEO Georgia Lennon, as well as the Embrace Difference Council representatives Stephanie Shedden and Sandra Gibbs.

Angie Liu (KDF Scholar 2016) gave the most inspiring speech about her journey to become a teacher (which included a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Sydney, a Master’s in Teaching from the University of Melbourne and Master’s in Education from Harvard University!). As an 18-year-old, Angie wanted to “break the cycle of poverty for disadvantaged Australians through education”, and we think she is well on her way there.

Please find below Angie's inspiring speech:

“Good afternoon. My name is Angie and there’s three facts I'd like you to know about me. First off, I’m proudly Canberra born and raised. Canberra bash all you want, I’ll be the first to die on a hill with how much I love my hometown.

Secondly, I’m proudly a daughter, sister and wife-to-be. In honour of International Women’s Day, I want to take this moment to acknowledge my mother, a woman who has skin of steel and a heart softer than a marshmallow. Her grit and humour are a daily inspiration.

Thirdly, I’m proudly a high school mathematics teacher. On the daily, I jump around a classroom excitedly telling kids why quadratic expressions are different from quadratic equations and threaten to call their parents if they don’t get their homework done. It’s a combination of these three facts that me set on a collision course with the Katrina Dawson Foundation, an organisation that critically lives by its values of finding and supporting extraordinary young women (their words, not mine!). Without KDF and ultimately Katrina herself, I would not have had the success I’ve had, nor would I have the impact to do what I do.

Because the funny thing is, my parents never wanted me to be a teacher. In fact, I distinctly remember my mother saying to me: “Your father and I didn’t immigrate to this country for you just to become a teacher”.

Mum and Dad came to Australia from China forty years ago with no English, started their lives here by cleaning toilets, and were trying to raise three children of colour in a classic, white, Australian, suburban community. I now look back as an adult and know that the deep fear and uncertainty my mother felt was born of enormous immigrant struggle and sacrifice. She was faced, every day, with the knowledge that our family did not have the same financial or cultural means to guarantee a quality of life she saw others having. So teenage me declaring I wanted to be a teacher where the pay was low, the conditions were brutal and respect was tepid at the best of times? Basically, the equivalent of me announcing to her I was running away with the circus!

However, in all seriousness, when people ask me why I wanted to become a teacher, I knew at 16 that there was no other profession in which I could be fully and authentically me. I practice, day in day out, a vocation that demands me to communicate, lead, learn, play, think creatively and most of all, help. I could spend hours speaking about how much I love my students. Truly. Don’t even get me started. After everything and everyone that it’s taken to get me here, I am grateful every single day to simply teach.

Thus, upon receiving the Katrina Dawson Scholarship my life and future opened up. My mother was, of course, elated. Someone else was helping her look out for me with the means that she simply didn’t have. Specifically, Katrina’s Scholarship enabled me to attend Women’s College, a residential college at the University of Sydney. What neither of us could have anticipated was that through the KDF I also received, as Katrina so eloquently put, a “supportive base for women ... an opportunity for me to think freely and form myself – something which is integral in women’s lives today”.

College became a base in which I was to form myself and challenge my own thinking through learning from extraordinary women. I had the privilege of connecting with the Dawsons, met Quentin Bryce, was mentored by barrister Courtney Ensor and came to know Heads of College Dr Amanda Bell and Dr Tiffany Donnelly. And each of them gave me their beautiful snapshot of Katrina, stories of who she was. Of how she baked birthday cakes for her children. How she excitedly ripped off her heels and stepped over chairs to speak to “lowly” junior lawyers. How she outsmarted her brothers in basically every single way. And how was just someone who would make you feel that you were the most important person in the whole world when she was talking to you.

By the end of my first year, I realised that I wasn’t simply experiencing a means to my own dreams. At its core, I was experiencing what it meant to be the beneficiary an incredible legacy. Katrina’s legacy, that is. My opportunity could never have arisen if Katrina hadn’t lived an extraordinary life of love, intellect and compassion. I couldn’t have done what I did if she hadn’t.

Thanks to the springboard of the KDF Scholarship, my pursuit of being a world class educator has taken me beyond little old Canberra and onto Sydney, Helsinki, Harvard and currently Melbourne. And at each horizon, I hope I am cultivating a life that is generating opportunities and supports for others with love, intellect and compassion. How Katrina and the KDF scholarship has changed my life is beyond mine or even my mother’s wildest hopes.

So, whilst Katrina and I never met in person, she continues to have a legacy in the girls her scholarships support and through our lives. Through me, she touches the lives of students, their learning and our next generation. Through other scholars, Katrina forms sustainable living, architecture and urban developments. Through others she impacts health, biomedicine and research. The thing is, when you donate to the Katrina Dawson Foundation you join Katrina’s legacy, which means to help women live a life which is bigger than their own. Women whose life will touch more than just an individual but entire communities and the future they will live. I stand before you today utterly grateful and certain that this is and will be the impact of your generosity today.

My name is Angie. I’m proudly Canberra born and raised, a daughter, sister and wife-to-be and a high school mathematics teacher. But the last fact I share today is that I’m proud to be part of Katrina’s legacy and here you all here today. Thank you for your time. Come find me later if you’d like a personalised itinerary for your next Canberra trip.”