At a ceremony held in Sydney and by Zoom with several regional areas, Orange’s Rebecca Crisp recently won the prestigious Rotary 2020 Young Inspirational Woman Award for rural women.

Originally nominated by Rotary Club of Orange Daybreak’s Mary Brell OAM, also Rebecca’s close friend and mentor. Rebecca was selected for the 2016 Rotary Daybreak Schoolies Program to Nepal as a result of her outstanding record of school leadership. In Nepal, Rebecca organised teams, co-planned activities in schools and ensured that the activities Rotary undertook were compatible with the local culture.

The award recognises the Rotary motto; Service above Self. Rebecca’s award was made virtually by Her Excellency The Honourable Margaret Beazley AC QC, Governor of NSW, and in person in Orange, by Mary Brell.

“If I’m entirely honest I was probably more surprised than anyone that I got the award,” laughed Rebecca.

“I’m very grateful that Mary nominated me, she has been my personal reference for a number of different things and it was really lovely of her.

“I learned a lot about myself on the Rotary Daybreak Schoolies Program to Nepal four years ago. That program was really inspirational for me, it opened my eyes to the different worlds. I think the interest has always been there but the empowerment and the confidence to do it wasn’t, I was only 17 when we went to Nepal, and I think it gave me the confidence to know, if I could live in a remote village in Nepal for a month, then I could live anywhere, I could do it without running water, or infrastructure or a shared language.

Since then I have felt empowered to take on other leadership roles. I think charity work in a broad sense is really valuable and it gives me an incredible sense of fulfillment, so.. why wouldn’t I do it?”

Rebecca is now studying Arts and Law at the Australian National University. She also continued actions on returning from Nepal, being the Co-ordinator of a Law Reform and Social Justice Study Tour to Cambodia and Myanmar, and volunteering for Dream Cricket and Amnesty International.

At University Rebecca has taken on several more editorial and leadership roles such as President of ANU Women in Leadership and is currently State Co-ordinator for ActionAid Australia.

“That work has been very full on and quite I’m out of my depth a lot of the time, but I really enjoy it and I love the challenge of being able to work with the National Leadership team and help curate the campaign strategies and organise action on the ground with translates to a broader movement,” said Rebecca.

“Mary and the other Rotary leaders were pivotal in that sense they encouraged us to go on and pursue other opportunities and they were the voices saying, yes you can do that. I think that’s such a valuable relationship to have, someone that will always push you to be the best that you can be or do the most that you can do. I think plenty of people, particularly in rural Australia, don’t have that voice, so I definitely attribute a lot that I have done to them and what they have done for me.”

Where to now for Rebecca Crisp? “I still have a couple of years in my degree to go, I’m also involved in a project in Myanmar. I’ll be moving there for a year, doing research into legal reform and more. I travelled there in 2019 doing some research into gender equality and education and I just became smitten with the place.

“When there I developed contacts with the local development agency, so I’m hoping to work there and ANU run an exchange program with one of the Universities there so hopefully I can do that exchange, gaining professional experience and development.”

The 2020 Rotary District Inspirational Women’s Awards consisted of six Awards, Rebecca against stiff competition alongside three other finalists with impressive achievements. If this story hasn’t shown Rebecca’s true good-will, this last quote will.

“One thing I want to say is there were a number of other finalists in the Central West Area for the Rural young women category that have done amazing things, they are an amazing group of women and should be recognised as well.”

A true inspiration to all, well done Rebecca!