Tyler Redway
A KEEN university student from Robe has received the prestigious Playford Trust Honours Scholarship as a part of the Trust’s annual awards night last week.
Freya Barr was among 40 other students from universities across South Australia who were praised and awarded during the night.
Freya Barr is currently studying a Bachelor of Science (Honours) (Environmental Science) at Flinders University, which she said was important for her passion to protect the environment.
Ms Barr first began her studies after returning from a trip to the United States, which she took to participate in several different summer camps to learn more about environments and their structures.
Ms Barr said she did not realise environmental science was a course which could be studied until after she returned to Australia, which she quickly took advantage of.
“I realised that I really loved learning about how different parts of the world’s environments work and how their different processes worked together so when I came back to Australia to go to uni, I had no idea it was even a thing you could study,” Ms Barr said.
“Throughout the study, I was lucky enough to do some research projects which sort of solidified my love for learning how these processes work and being able to look at the world in this new light.
“Caring about our environments and ecosystems has been another thing which was very important to me all throughout my childhood and teenage years , particularly with the impending effects of climate change.
“You kind of have the feeling that you want to at least try and make a difference, so all the pieces came together when I realised environmental science was something you could study.”
Ms Barr said the scholarship would allow her to focus more on her studies rather than having to stress so much about maintaining costs through part-time work, while hopefully providing future career opportunities.
Ms Barr also expressed how important her research was to her own personal development and goals.
“It’s a lot of hard work, I feel lucky to have a wonderful support system behind me which has allowed me to pursue as many opportunities as I could during my studies,” she said.
“I threw my hat in as many rings as I could and I wouldn’t even be here doing my research or accepting this scholarship if I hadn’t applied for a summer research scholarship back in 2022.
“One thing about my research in particular is the coast of South Australia is so under-researched so we really need to understand how it’s working now to understand what the effects of climate change will do to impact it.
“It’s really important to me because I have a passion to protect our environment and our ecosystem so I think understanding how those environments came to be and how they interact in the present day are really important stepping stones in order to better understand how we can protect them in the future.”
In addition to her scholarship, Ms Barr said she also received other awards at roughly the same time as the scholarship.
“It came at quite an odd time this year because I found out I had received the scholarship in late February and then a few weeks later I received two emails telling me I had received another couple of awards,” she said.
“It was quite an astounding moment, this is the first scholarship I have received but I have also been recognised by the Royal Geographic Society of South Australia for excellence in geography last year and this year and also the Flinders University Prize for Women in Sustainability.”
Ms Barr said another option either before or after her future career paths was going “full circle” to a teaching career, which she said was something she had always been interested in.
“My next goal once I graduate at the end of this year is to hopefully get some experience within the industry,” she said.
“Further on from that, I have always had an interest in education and teaching so it might turn out to be a full circle kind of moment coming back to academia and research.
“At the moment I’m just trying to enjoy my time while I’m still studying and just trying to put myself out there for as many opportunities as possible to see where it leads.”
