Bernie Singleton Scholarship sets young graduate on path to success
June 21, 2024
At the end of 2023, Nathan Sagigi graduated from a Bachelor of Clinical Exercise Physiology (Honours) at the University of Queensland in Brisbane. Nathan is a proud Wakaid and Dauareb Man from the Torres Strait and in January 2021 was awarded the prestigious Bernie Singleton Scholarship through Apunipima. The scholarship provides financial support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders from Cape York and the Torres Strait Islands that are enrolled to study full-time in Health or Management. Nathan won the scholarship before commencing his studies and said it was a huge help for him in moving to Brisbane.
“Winning was such a huge relief, because I knew how difficult it was going to be, financially, to relocate. It was such a big help with all the costs involved in getting setup in a new place. Apunipima gave me a lump sum at the start of the first and second semesters in my first year which helped with all the setup and then after that they’ve been reimbursing me for my study-related expenses,” he said.
Now that Nathan has graduated, he’s moved into work in his chosen field and is working five days a week earning money while he continues his career development learning and gaining experience in a hands-on environment.
“At the moment I’m working part-time in two different roles. I do three days at Chermside Community Health Centre with Queensland Health in Cardiac Rehabilitation, and two days with the Institute Of Urban Indigenous Health as an Exercise Physiologist, helping out with 1-on-1 exercise physiology services and a bit of hydrotherapy pool sessions as well. Right now, having just graduated I really am just trying to get as much exposure, learning and experience as I can. That’s the main reason I took a position with the Institute of Urban Indigenous Health because I’ve heard such great things about the help they’re providing to Indigenous people and I wanted to see how they deliver their services.”
“My long-term goal is to head back up to Thursday Island and work in the hospital there to deliver exercise physiology services within the community. We have physiotherapists up there and pretty much every other allied health service but there’s no exercise physiologist and I think it would be very beneficial up in the Torres Straits to have a program for people living with chronic conditions like diabetes for example. From what I’ve heard there’s also no specific cardiac rehab programs available on the island, so people are coming down to Cairns for their surgery and then going home without the opportunity to go through the rehab, so I think that’s important as well.”
Nathan says he’s really enjoying the work in his chosen health career and is very grateful to Apunipima for the support they’ve provided through the scholarship. He says he would recommend both a career in Health and the Bernie Singleton Scholarship to any young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders thinking about going down this path.
“I’d highly recommend anyone who is studying to apply for the scholarship because it has just been such a great help for me and for any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders who are contemplating a career in health, I’d also say go for it! We really need culturally appropriate care for our mob and the more of our people working in health, the better the outcomes are going to be for us. I’m absolutely loving the work, it’s great to build relationships and connections with the people I’m working with, and there’s so much job satisfaction around helping the clients and patients improve their quality of life and helping them to self-manage with the conditions they’re living with.”
