About the Brennan Program

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The Brennan Program is
a free voluntary Program,

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driven by the ideals of
justice consciousness,

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idealism and a sense of service.

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In accomplishing this award,
it developed students capacity

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for professional and personal
leadership and service.

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Since 2011, the Brennan Program
has accrued over 2,000 active members.

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My favourite part of it was probably
the connections that I made

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and the people that I met.

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My main goal in joining
the Brennan Program

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was to get more involved
in social justice.

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What I love about the Brendan Program

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is I really got to meet
so many different people

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and do a wide
range of tasks, you know,

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I was doing things from
volunteering at immigration centres

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to helping the elderly use IT.

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So, if you're a UTS law student,

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I would suggest that
you just give it a go.

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It's a fun, engaging
and diverse experience.

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Being surrounded by
people who are driven

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and who really care about
social justice issues,

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really inspired me as well
and it just reminded me that

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it's possible to create a better world.

Anthea Vogl: Good, oh, exactly, um, afternoon, everyone. welcome to the Brennan Justice and leadership information session. My name is Dr. Anthea Vogel, and I'm the faculty co-director of the Brennan Justice program here at UTS. Today I will be welcoming you to the Brennan Justice program and giving you a really broad overview and detailed overview of the program

Anthea Vogl: alongside one of my fellow faculty co-directors, Georgia Mitchell, who you'll see on her screen there, and our other faculty co-director for this year is Chloe Mckay, who, when you no doubt join the program you'll encounter as you participate in the Brennan Justice activities

Anthea Vogl: before we go any further. I wanted to begin our session by acknowledging

Anthea Vogl: the traditional owners of the land which I'm zooming in from the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. I pay my respects to the elders, past, present, and emerging, and acknowledge them as the custodians of the land which I'm on, and also acknowledge that sovereignty has never been ceded, and that Aboriginal justice and questions of sovereignty and treaty are really central to the Brennan justice program, and the questions of legal and social justice that we discuss.

Anthea Vogl: I know that some of you are zooming in from not just Sydney, but perhaps beyond Sydney, and would encourage you to let us know where you're zooming in from in the chat, if you wish to, and for aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students who have joined us. I extend a very warm welcome to you.

Anthea Vogl: Before we get going into the formal part of the session as well. Just some very brief Zoom housekeeping. It's lovely to see a lot of you popping up on your little black boxes into the session.

Anthea Vogl: and here to see you here to talk about and hear a little bit about the Brennan Justice program.

Anthea Vogl: just to let everyone know that the event is being recorded, but only for teaching and learning and Brennan  justice purposes

Anthea Vogl: only key speakers and those who ask questions in discussion time will come up in the zoom recording 
Anthea Vogl: when you're speaking. I'd love for you to put your camera on if you feel comfortable doing so. If you ask a question at the end for students who have joined and are intending to join, or have already joined, the Brennan Justice program. You will already earn 5 reflections on justice points for attending this session. If you have logged in using your university account, it will be automatically added to your Brennan Justice profile.

Anthea Vogl: If you have logged in via another account or your name is not your university profile name. If you just pop your name, your and your UTS email address in the chat, we'll be able to register Brennan Justice points to you.

Anthea Vogl: and just to let you know you can pop any questions that you have about the program in the chat as we go through and present to you. We have both Georgia and myself presenting, and a couple of wonderful guest speakers.

Anthea Vogl: You can also ask questions at the end. So if you prefer to raise your hand and ask questions at the end, there'll be time for questions then.

Anthea Vogl: Now all that housekeeping is done. Let's kick off and give you some information about the Brennan Justice program.

Anthea Vogl: and I wanted to begin by giving you a sense of what the program is some of you may already know, but the Brennan program is a voluntary extracurricular program for UTS law students, and what it fundamentally does is aims to strengthen our students. Justice, consciousness, idealism, and the sense of service that you bring to your law studies.

Anthea Vogl: It's frequently a commitment to social justice. I think that brought many of us to our law studies and to legal practice. That was certainly the case for me, and the Brennan justice seeks to give you as students a chance to realise that social justice, curiosity, and commitment.

Anthea Vogl: The program is run jointly by the faculty and your law student society.

Anthea Vogl: and it's a really unique part of UTS. There is no other law school in Australia that has a program quite like it, or offers an opportunity to students that the Bread and Justice Program does.

Anthea Vogl: The program is named after Sir Jared Brennan. Sir Jared was a former Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, and also a former Chancellor here at UTS law, and at UTS, more broadly

Anthea Vogl: for those of you who don't yet know too much about Sir Jared. He, amongst other things, as the Chief Justice of the High Court, wrote the lead judgment in the very well known case of Mabo, which abolished the concept of terra nullius, and began the recognition of native title in Australia.

Anthea Vogl: The program and the award were named after Sir Gerard, because his life and his work exemplified the qualities that the program seeks to nurture.

Anthea Vogl: And throughout the course of the program, and being involved, you have the opportunity to learn more about Sir Jared Brennan. If you wish to.

Anthea Vogl: If you complete the program you receive as a UTS law student the Brennan justice and leadership award.

Anthea Vogl: So what do you get out of the program. And what will the program involve for you?

Anthea Vogl: As I mentioned? And this is important. The program is a voluntary program. So you don't have to do it. But students who have completed the program speak about it really highly. And we are going to hear from some of those students. A little bit later on.

Anthea Vogl: students have commented about how they have made connections with like minded people made friends that it gave a lot of meaning to their law degree, and it gave them access to opportunities, experiences, and pathways into the legal profession, that they and the social justice aspects of the legal profession that they wouldn't otherwise have had.

Anthea Vogl: So one student who was part of the program has said that the growth and learning opportunities of the Brennan Jusitce program have been a defining factor of my well rounded legal education at UTS.

Anthea Vogl: Another student who was recently involved in the program commented that the Brennan justice program utterly transformed my time as a law student at UTS. It encouraged me not only to be involved in volunteering and fundraising causes, but also to be aware of the vast number of social justice issues that surround the legal profession.

Anthea Vogl: I can also let you know that the program itself is really highly regarded and well known among the profession and employers, and for those of you who complete the program in full, you'll receive a letter of reference from the Dean and the award, which is presented at a special awards night within the faculty towards the end of the year, and the Brennan justice award itself will also appear on your official university Transcript.

Anthea Vogl: You can join the program from the very moment that you start law school. And in doing so you'd be joining over a thousand of our law students who are part of the program.

Anthea Vogl: What you get as part of the program is access to the exclusive events, the exclusive but welcoming events that the Brennan justice program runs and they include a series of justice talks on key issues and legal issues with often really eminent and engaging guest speakers who come to the faculty especially to speak to you as Breton justice students.

Anthea Vogl: while we very much hope you complete all of the elements of the program, and we'll talk a little bit about what the required elements of the program are in a minute.

Anthea Vogl: One of the really great things about the program, particularly for busy law students managing both work, study and all of the other things that life involves is that it's an incredibly flexible program. So if you join the program and decide, you'd like to take up a handful of

Anthea Vogl: interning or volunteering opportunities over the course of your degree and not complete the program. That is absolutely fine. If you join the program to attend our events, and may not have time to get involved in the volunteering aspects of the program. That's also fine. We're here to support you to complete the program. But

Anthea Vogl: actually, the program offers you a lot of flexibility as law students as you go through it.

Anthea Vogl: I am now going to play a short video. We'll talk a little bit about how you can register and provide the registration link towards the end of today's session. But I'm now going to play a short video from some of our Brennan Justice students where they

Anthea Vogl: say, speak to you about their experience of the program.

Anthea Vogl: So

Youtube Video: the Brennan program is a free, voluntary program, driven by the ideals of justice, consciousness, idealism, and a sense of service. In accomplishing this award. It developed students capacity for professional and personal leadership and service. Since 2,011 the Brennan program has accrued over 2,000 active members. My favourite part of it was probably the connections that I made, and the people that I met

Youtube video: my main goal in joining the Brennan program was to get more involved in social justice. What I love about the Brennan program is I really got to meet so many different people and do a wide range of tasks. You know I was doing things from volunteering at an immigration center to helping the elderly use IT. So if you're a UTS law student, I would suggest that you just give it a go.

Youtube video: It's a fun, engaging and diverse experience being surrounded by people who are driven and who really care about social justice issues really inspired me as well. And it just reminded me that it's possible to create a better world.

Anthea Vogl: Oh.

Anthea Vogl: they were some of the voices of the students who have been involved in the program so far. This slide gives you a little introduction to this year's Brennan justice team.

Anthea Vogl: You'll see on the slide myself and Georgia as 2 of your co-directors as well as Chloe Mckay. But also here we have our wonderful student programs, coordinator, Crystal Meikle and our student programs, officers, Bec Keen and Sivaan Walker.

Anthea Vogl: They run the program and are absolutely and always available to answer your questions and queries, and do a wonderful job of supporting you as students to access the various opportunities that the Brennan Justice program provides.

Anthea Vogl: and for those of you who join the program. You will no doubt meet potentially all of us, but definitely, some of us, as you go through the program itself.

Anthea Vogl: I'll now hand over to Georgia briefly, and Georgia will begin to give you a little bit more of a sense of the nuts and bolts of the program and the ways in which you can be involved.

Anthea Vogl: Thanks, Georgia.

Georgia Mitchell: Thanks. Anthea. Would you mind going to? Oh, yes, perfect so here we've got a bit of an overview of your go to Brennan Kit, as it says. Oh.

Georgia Mitchell: sorry.

Georgia Mitchell: We'll go through a bit more of these in depth. Talking about career. Hub but this is just a good list of things that are going to be useful for you if you do undertake the Brenham program in any sort of capacity. But I think if we go to the next slide I might be able to give you a better overview of how the Brennan program works. Okay, so there's 2

Georgia Mitchell: components, 2 main components to the Brennan program. You can see on the screen. We have our leadership through service. We call these our Lts hours, and we have our reflections on justice. So our Roj points

Georgia Mitchell: and I'll give you a brief overview of what these 2 components entail now. But we'll have lots of examples that I'm going to run you through as well a bit later on in the session. But we'll start with the reflections on justice. So our roj points essentially what this is is, it's designed to encourage us as students to engage with the ideas and themes of justice within its varying social context.

Georgia Mitchell: and so to do so. There are plenty of activities and initiatives, such as lectures and webinars, discussion groups, a book program. So there's plenty of opportunities to obtain these roj points and participate in them alongside your peers, and in doing so, reflecting on considering and generating

Georgia Mitchell: conversation about social justice is our goal.

Georgia Mitchell: And so, as you can see under there, we have some examples. So the book program, Brennan events, external events and student discussion groups which I will explain a little bit more in depth

Georgia Mitchell: a little bit later on. But essentially, no matter what degree you're doing, you have to. If you want to complete the program, obtain a hundred of those Roj points. And you can do as many different types of events and initiatives as you want to obtain those and then we have our leadership through service. So our Lts hours.

Georgia Mitchell: And to put this simply, it's just volunteer work. So partaking in voluntary student service throughout the course of your degree.

Georgia Mitchell: And so in undertaking this leadership through service and volunteering work, it's the hope of the Brennan program that this will develop our capacity for initiative and for leadership as well as contributing back to our community. I do think Anthea will go into a bit more depth about the leadership through service in a moment. But it doesn't have to be a legal oriented volunteer
 

Georgia Mitchell: service that you get your hours through. It can be non legal and depending on your degree that will have an impact on how many hours you do in order to satisfy the Lts component. But I might pass back over to Anthea. Now, who will give you a bit more of an explanation on that.

Anthea Vogl: Thank you. Georgia.

Anthea Vogl: Yeah. So precisely. Coming to leadership through service.
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Anthea Vogl: this gives you a kind of zoom in around the number of hours that you would be completing, depending on the length of your degree, and you'll see that it breaks down to roughly 40 h per year.

Anthea Vogl: So that's less than 1h week, and particularly once you begin, maybe a volunteering opportunity. It's really the equivalent of about 5 days work. So it's essentially 5 days of volunteering

Anthea Vogl: throughout the year

Anthea Vogl: it really is doable and an achievable contribution, and indeed many, if not all, of the Brennan students who take out the award, meet these requirements, or sometimes exceed them because of the relationship they build with a particular organisation that they're studying with

Anthea Vogl: that they're studying or working with rather, and volunteering with.

Anthea Vogl: as I mentioned before, this is a really good thing to aim for, and there are so many volunteer opportunities that come through the various avenues of the Brennan justice program. But don't let the number of hours necessarily deter you into beginning to think about how you might be part of the Brennan Justice program and begin the volunteering and work with a range of different organisations once you are registered as a Brennan justice student.

Anthea Vogl: This gives you a little bit of a clearer sense of the kinds of organisations that you might be volunteering with in your leadership through service hours, as Georgia mentioned. They don't have to be legal organisations, so that really opens up opportunities across the spectrum of different, not for profit organizations

Anthea Vogl: that you can contribute your time and energy to.

Anthea Vogl: Most importantly, it has to be unremunerated and not for academic credit. So it's volunteering that might not be part of, say, an internship course or another legal internship that you might be doing as part of this degree or another one.

Anthea Vogl: Your volunteering is absolutely spread across more than one year, otherwise that those number of hours would be completely untenable.

Anthea Vogl: As I said, it doesn't have to be law related, and this is a really important point, as you'll see from some of the students you're about to meet today. You. Most of the volunteering is really overtaken over multiple organizations and the course of your degree, but it absolutely can be a single organization if if you find the right place for you, and that's where you end up doing a lot of your volunteering as part of the program.

Anthea Vogl: and credit only accrues for activities from when you were 1st involved in your law degree. So you can't backdate to other volunteering that you might have done.

Anthea Vogl: this slide gives you a really nice example of what leadership through service

Anthea Vogl: can involve, and the different organizations that people have

Anthea Vogl: volunteered for some of the specific organisations in the categories that you can see on the slide include the refugee advice and casework service.

Anthea Vogl: which is the Peak, New South Wales body for providing free legal advice to refugees and asylum seekers in Australia, and an organisation with which I'm very involved. Amnesty international, Anti Slavery, Australia, UTS John Barnett Institute for Indigenous Education and Research.

Anthea Vogl: A really broad range of Clcs across Sydney have taken on Brennan Justice students and have great partnerships with the program.

Anthea Vogl: Various charity awareness days, UTS LSS runs Westmead Children's Hospital Visits.  
Anthea Vogl: Volunteering for some students has also included, the Oxfam trail Walker.

Anthea Vogl: and work at surf life savings, clubs, sports and local community and charities.

Anthea Vogl: And you work within and volunteering within the UTS Law society also can be part of your Brennan justice volunteering. So I hope that gives you a sense of the breadth of the organisations that students volunteer with, and really the variety of activities that you can count towards your Brennan justice program.

Anthea Vogl: This next slide gives you a little bit of a sense of how you find some of these opportunities. And I think a really nice part of the program is students learning to pursue and seek out opportunities that are of interest to them, and apply for and get involved in particular programs which are all skills that will be essential to whatever career you choose, either within law or beyond it. We support you really

Anthea Vogl: steadily and in a really hands-on way to help you find opportunities. But we also encourage you to find and pursue your own interests.

Anthea Vogl: Independently of some of these avenues that we give you access to. But you can see here that we really encourage you to follow your own interests and your kind of place in the community and your own community connections.

Anthea Vogl: But we also provide a kind of really steady stream of opportunities through the UTS leadership, through service webpage as well as through the Brennan program; Canvas announcements, announcements, regular emails and Facebook and career Hub.

Anthea Vogl: And then you can see some of some different organisations that also collate various volunteer opportunities that you can have a look at if you are seeking out a volunteer opportunity for the program.

Anthea Vogl: One example of the Lts opportunities that we run and lead from within the faculty is the Allen's Neoda UTS law tech challenge. So, this challenge started sometime in 2017, and it involves the Brennan program in partnership with Allens, which is a leading law firm in Australia and the software Company Neota Logic.

Anthea Vogl: Under this challenge, students team up with non-government organisations to help them develop real apps to assist their service or clients. So it's a real life exercise. And you develop develop a real outcome which is an app for a particular organisation.

Anthea Vogl: Students involved in this challenge have developed over 20 apps for different non-government organisations.

Anthea Vogl: And so, when the time comes, each year, we call for 20 student participants near the end of the year, and they work with their client with the support of Allen's and Neota Logic, in order to develop the the required apps.

Anthea Vogl: Some of the clients that our students have worked with include justice connect,

Anthea Vogl: the Redfern legal centre, the refugee advice and casework.

Anthea Vogl: and the women's just just the women's justice network, along with many other organisations.

Anthea Vogl: It's a really fabulous challenge. And the grand final event is open to other students to watch. And it's actually coming up this session, for those of you who are interested. This year's grand final will also be live streamed, so if you can't attend in person, you can attend the live stream and have a look at what the students have produced in partnership with the Legal and software company and their particular client.

Anthea Vogl: I'm now going to show you another short video that gives you a little bit of a sense of the challenge and gives you a sense of something. If it's something that you might like to be involved in

Anthea Vogl: as part of your law degree. So

Anthea Vogl: to consider multiple.

Youtube video: So the students that we had in the program this year were incredible. They were getting on with their studies, but meanwhile actually made friends, formed teams, collaborated and solved their clients problems.

Youtube Video: So my favorite part about the challenge has been collaborating not only with my team, but also with our client, especially because it's been about social justice. I think when you get a lot of minds in a room. You can really make change. It makes me feel like I was really contributing to a just cause, and to, let's say, a brighter future for legal technology.
 

YouTube Video: I really enjoyed meeting with my team each week, and we had a really diverse team with a transdisciplinary background. This challenge has taught me to approach problem solving in a really holistic manner, it's enabled me to consider multiple perspectives before coming up with a solution. I like most about the challenge, the fact that we got to make a real service for a real client, and that really taught me a lot about project management and design, which is something you don't get to touch on as much in the law school.

YouTube Video: So client liaison is paramount in this challenge. Your client should be with you every step in the way during your development process, and you should plan your client engagement ahead to avoid any delay in your development process as well.

YouTube Video: one of the biggest things I'd recommend for future law students taking part in the challenge is to get to know their client and really get to know the client's problem. If you don't understand the client's problem, you really can't solve anything. If you're thinking of taking part in this challenge, I would say, go for it. Although there is a lot of hard work, it is a lot of fun. I feel like going through. This challenge has really set me apart from other students.

Anthea Vogl: So that gives you a little bit of a sense of the tech challenge. In the next part of the presentation, It's my pleasure to introduce 2 students who have been involved in the program, and who will be giving you a little bit of sense of what that involvement looks like.

Anthea Vogl: and a more detailed understanding of what it means to do some of this Brennan Justice work and volunteering.

Anthea Vogl: And after that we will actually hear from one of our program partners Inspire Tomorrow Education who have just partnered with the Brennan Justice program as one of the organisations where students can complete their leadership through service hours.

Anthea Vogl: But before we do that I will 1st off hand over to Daniela Warda, who will speak about her leadership through service and involvement in the program. Thanks so much. Daniela.

Daniela Warda: Hi, everyone! I've just graduated from a bachelor of law and a bachelor of business. And completed the Justice Brennan program of the 5 year course. So as you are advised through the Powerpoint presentation that the justice Brennan program consists of the 2 core components, which is the reflections on justice and the leadership through service.

Daniela Warda: I have prepared a little speech here, so I might just read it. Or you know? So basically, the the leadership through so service? You actively contribute to society. And I found that very like, I found a great satisfaction                                    
in that, because I feel like you're making some sort of a difference. I spent a lot of my time. You know, with the hours that I had

Daniela Warda: assisting a nonprofit organization named Justice, Action and justice action advocates for people who are imprisoned in Australian prisons and hospitals, and it defends their human rights.

Daniela Warda: In some of the most yeah, defends their human rights in some of the most challenging environments. So the justice action organization has a long history dated back to one of Australia's penal colony days. And it's emerged in response to the inhumane treatment and degradation of the convict.

Daniela Warda: So justice action also continues to,

Daniela Warda: continues their legacy by supporting individuals affected by incarceration. So we did a lot of work. I remember it was like a Monday class. We'd always attend it was like a 9,

Daniela Warda: I think it was a 9 to 5

Daniela Warda: and we just assisted, you know, writing emails trying to make some changes. You know, propose ideas where there could possibly be some legislative reforms in relation to incarceration.

Daniela Warda: So it was kind of great participating in that. And I think I remember also emailing like the big people in Parliament, you know it. It was good to kind of get involved in that way, especially at that time. I didn't have much office.

Daniela Warda: You know. Office background

Daniela Warda: it it. I came from a retail background. So it kind of, you know. Helped me, you know.

Daniela Warda: you know. Let's have. Let's talk to these big people. Let's draft an email and it was all for a good cause. So that was great.

Daniela Warda: Also.

Daniela Warda: yes. So basically, the leadership through service offers valuable opportunities.

Daniela Warda: And it also helps with, you know, building those connections and expanding your networks through. You know, if you do participate in something like justice action, and I think that's really crucial for both your professional and personal growth.

Daniela Warda: I'll touch on reflections on justice. What I did was you, sometimes I'm not too sure if it still runs but there are like huddle classes that you meet every once a week during the semester, and where you've got an assigned group, and you, you speak about various social justice topics.

Daniela Warda: The whole reason why I started law was because I was really interested in like social justice, you know, and advocacy for that sort of thing. So it was really good that I was a part of such a community where, you know, we'd meet up every single week we'd have these topics. They were. They were very interesting and, you know, like, share your opinion and hear other people's opinions

Daniela Warda: on these topics. So it, you know, it underscored the importance of collaborative learning, which I think, especially if you're doing Law is very important.

Daniela Warda: And this teamwork also encouraged, like the exchange of the diverse ideas and perspectives leading to like a deeper understanding of these these issues that you know it were on topic.

Daniela Warda: So yeah, I'd highly recommend the Justice Brennan program for these especially cause you know you can. If you're into writing, you can, you know, delve into that while also being more practical. So basically, you know over the course of your degree whether it spans from 3 years to 5 years or anything in between the Justice Brennan program proves to be exceptionally rewarding.

Daniela Warda: I think I believe it enriches your university experience, and it also enhances your knowledge and expands your network, which is very important in the in the field that you're about to kind of

Daniela Warda: go into. The program is designed to fit seamlessly into university life, and the Justice Brennan Team is incredibly supportive. I've had instances where I needed, you know, assistance with like a few hours to get through you know the leadership through service, or you know the reflections and justice, and they've been incredibly accommodating.

Daniela Warda: so I'm just really grateful to have participated, and I highly recommend it.

Daniela Warda: So yeah.

Anthea Vogl: Thanks so much, Daniela. It's so great to hear about the work that you've done, and the important contribution that you've made and also that the degree that the law degree and the Brennan justice program were compatible and led to such great outcomes and congratulations on finishing your degree.

Daniela Warda: Thank you. Thanks.

Anthea Vogl: I'll now hand over to another of our Brennan Justice students who we're really grateful has made the time to join us. Emma Gaston, who will also give you an overview of her involvement.

Emma Gaston: Hi, everyone. My name is Emma. I'm a 5th Year law and communication student, and I joined the Brennan program in my 1st year, and it's been such a rewarding experience that is really tailor made to the degree and has bolstered my experience at Uni. So, my LTS hours were gained mainly through 2 different avenues. I would say I found my 1st experience through UTS career hub

Emma Gaston: and my of the kind of the rest which you can see on the Powerpoint through the UTS Law Student Society, which I've been heavily involved in throughout my degree. So my 1st opportunity I found in my 1st year

Emma Gaston: at the Asylum Seekers Center through career Hub, I was a center support volunteer there for 8 months. I was also during Covid, and I was liaison directly with the asylum seekers, clients helping them to apply for visas and services and opal cards, and it was such an enriching experience, being one on one with asylum seekers, learning skills in intercultural communication and feeling really involved in a community organization. And that taught me a lot of skills that I'm applying now in my jobs today.

Emma Gaston: And then the rest of my opportunities came through my involvement with the UTS Law Student Society, which I imagine a lot of you have already heard of. I worked in a myriad of roles. There I was the sports Director equity director. I was a senior buddy for multiple years, a law camp leader. I was recently the Bar podcast host, which was an amazing volunteer opportunity. I got to speak to some amazing people like the former director of public

Emma Gaston: prosecutions, Nicholas Cowdry, and all of these opportunities through the Law Student Society, have been fantastic, and I would definitely encourage you all to reach out to your Brennan directors your lovely Brennan directors to speak to them about opportunities on the Law Student society, because there's a lot to be involved in. You

don't have to be a director. You can work on different committees like the the Social Justice Committee, the Publications Committee, and gain your hours through there as well.

Emma Gaston: I think the great thing about the Brennan program is how, when you start one volunteer opportunity, so many more volunteer opportunities open for you, and as soon as you get involved you're really your eyes are open to the world of volunteering. I can know it can be daunting to get involved in your 1st experience. And you're thinking, how will I get all of these hours? But truly, as soon as you start you'll learn that there's so much out there for you to be involved in

Emma Gaston: and just what Anthea spoke to before about the program being highly regarded, I can personally say that is completely true. I've worked at both the Australian Government now, my role at Allen's, and both are highly impressed with the program. And it provides so many different skills that you can apply in the workplace. But it also recenters your mind to really think about how is everything I'm doing, contributing to social justice. And how can I keep giving back

Emma Gaston: the community? And that community mindedness is so important moving forward in your career as a lawyer. So that's kind of what I've been involved in. If you have any questions about specific roles I've been involved in, please feel free to reach out via email, Linkedin social media. It's just my name. If you have any questions for me as well. Thank you. Thanks. Everyone.

Anthea Vogl: Thanks so much, Emma. And thanks for the generous offer for students to reach out and speak to you. And yeah, and I think, both Emma and Daniella give everyone a really lovely sense of the ways in which the program itself is

Anthea Vogl: both flexible, but also lets you pursue your own interest across a range of areas? And the impressive, I guess contribution. It's not just about building your Cv, but these are really kind of real world activities that you have gotten involved in at your at the end of your law degree, and you have something to show for it, and something that really contributes to exactly what we talk about, which is your legal consciousness and your social justice consciousness. Once you get into

Anthea Vogl: the line of work that you choose to pursue. So it's really, it's really lovely to see students at the other end of the program. So thank you both for joining us.

Anthea Vogl: And now I will hand over to Ruby Co, who, from the other side of the Lts. Hours, and volunteering, is one of the organisations that partners with the Brennan Justice program.

Anthea Vogl: Ruby is from Inspire Tomorrow education, a student led organisation she will tell you all about, and one of the volunteer opportunities that you might be able to pursue if you join the program and start volunteering. So

thanks so much, Ruby, over to you.

Ruby Ko: Amazing. Hi, everyone! Thank you so much for having me today.

Ruby Ko: Yes, but I only hold the position of patient Operations director at Inspire Tomorrow Education. So just to provide a quick overview of who we are.

Ruby Ko: organization that is run entirely by student volunteers from across 5 plus major universities in Australia.

Ruby Ko: We were founded in January of this year, and we were kind of born from the need to create an academic landscape that really fosters inclusion and equitable opportunities to access tertiary education, irrespective of the circumstances which you may find yourself in. And we sort of do this in 3 different ways. The 1st way is by working directly with students that are experiencing that disadvantage and by providing them with mentorship and free online tutoring services.

Ruby Ko: The second way is by assisting eligible students with applying for and writing scholarships, ensuring that they're aware of what financial aid opportunities are available to them, and also by providing them access to our scholarships database, which is currently in the works. The 3rd way that we do this is through our technology transfer program, which is aiming to sort of bridge, the digital divide and assist

Ruby Ko: students that are residing in regional and rural areas to access online classrooms, or even to provide them with further digital tools that can supplement their remote learning

Ruby Ko: so sort of over the past few months, we have begun to try and forge partnerships with different university societies and with different faculties to

Ruby Ko: who also share the values of our mission. And by partnering with the Brennan program we want to be able to provide you with the opportunity to truly make a difference in a high school student's life and be a part of an organization that actively advocates for educational change. Currently, you can see on the screen there are a few different positions that we have some availability for, but the main ones that we're looking to fill

Ruby Ko: positions as volunteer tutors, so to be a part of our tutoring team there, or as scholarship officers. Now a little bit more about those 2 roles. 
Ruby Ko: in terms of commitments for those of you who are currently, maybe you're working a lot, or maybe your study load is quite intense. This semester, the volunteer tutor role would be a really good option for you. All it requires is 1 h of commitment, either a week or 1 H fortnight, where you meet online with the students and provide them with some academic support, really fostering those values of mentorship and guiding them.

Ruby Ko: We here at Ite we really live by the philosophy that you can't be what you can't see. And so, by pairing up sort of students who may want similar career.

Ruby Ko: Pardon me similar career pathways or come from similar backgrounds. We're really hoping to open up the eyes of students who may have not originally considered university as an option for them.

Ruby Ko: The second position that I mentioned is for our scholarship offices. Now, this one will require a little bit more commitments, approximately 2 to 4Hrs a week, and what you'll be doing is you'll be helping to build up our scholarship database, which is an online database on notion where students will be able to determine which scholarships are available or best suited to their                  

Ruby Ko: circumstances. Now, our point of difference with the scholarship database is that we clarify and we provide sort of insider tips and tricks for filling out particular application questions and overall our aim with that is to help make the scholarship application more accessible.

Ruby Ko: So if you do think any of those volunteer opportunities could be for you, please scan the QR. Code or search us up at inspire tomorrow education, either on our website or by our socials on Linkedin or Instagram. And following those links, you'll find out some more information and also be able to access access that application form. Again, if you do have any more questions reach out to our email, and someone will be able to provide you with some more information. As well.

Ruby Ko: Thank you.

Anthea Vogl: Thanks so much, Ruby. It's really lovely to be able to have you join our zoom information session and have ITE as part of the Brennan Justice program, and to provide students with these opportunities. So thank you.

Anthea Vogl: And now I will hand over to Georgia Mitchell, who will give you a bit more of a sense of the different aspects of the Brennan Justice program that we've provided

Anthea Vogl: an overview of so far. And, Georgia. If you just let me know when you'd like me to progress the next slide. I can do that for you.

Georgia Mitchell: Perfect thanks, Anthea, and thank you, Emma, Daniela and Ruby, for sharing those insights was really wonderful to hear from you all.

Georgia Mitchell: We facilitate the Brennan justice and leadership program through career hub. So for those of you who may be unfamiliar with career hub, I would really recommend watching as it says on the screen. Here, watch the video in your welcome email. Pack once you sign up, or if you sign up to the Brennan program. It's where we go to log all of our LTS hours and Roj points, and you can track your progress on the award there. So

Georgia Mitchell: so it's a really important website to know how to navigate. We also have lots of upcoming Brennan events and resources on career hub as well. So definitely jump on and have a look. And of course, if you do have any issues with accessing career hub, or finding this Brennan justice and Leadership program page, you can always email us and let us know, and we can help you out.

Georgia Mitchell: Next slide, please. Anthea.

Georgia Mitchell: Thank you. So now, as I was speaking about before. We'll go into a little bit more depth as to some of the ROJ activities and LTS initiatives that you can participate in to accrue some of these points. And we can also here have the different points that are allocated to different activities that you might participate in.

Georgia Mitchell: So we have our internal event attendance, which is things like our justice talks which I will tell you about in a few of our exciting talks. Coming up shortly. Again you register on career Hub, and you get 5 points just from attending and listening to these internal events. We also have our external event attendance, which is the same allocation of points. 5 points,if you attend an external event.

Georgia Mitchell: And again through career Hub, but you'll be writing a 350 word reflective post, or showing that you have attended so very similar process to the internal event attendance.

Georgia Mitchell: Finally, we have our discussion groups. Which Daniela was discussing. I believe, she said, that she participated in and really enjoyed them, which is fantastic to hear. We have recently opened up our registration for these discussion groups for the spring semester and so essentially what this is is, you'll be put into a group of about 6 to 7 little bit more sometimes depending on the participants of students. And you meet once a week and you discuss

Georgia Mitchell: different areas of social justice. And it's really great opportunity to meet other like minded students. And I mean, we're all here participating in the Brennan program because we do have an interest in social justice. So it's a really fantastic opportunity to

Georgia Mitchell: you know, engage and discuss about these different areas. And then you also will write submissions quite short ones, just kind of a recap of what you've discussed, and you'll be able to get 20 points of your roj, and that's quite a substantial amount of points towards it. So I'd really recommend participating in that

Georgia Mitchell: and I think Monica might have put the link to apply to the discussion groups in the chat. So if that sounds like something you're interested in, I would definitely recommend clicking that link there.

Georgia Mitchell: Thanks, Anthea.

Georgia Mitchell: A few more Roj activities. So ad hoc activities are pretty much anything that doesn't fit into the internal or external activity category. You know, if you're attending, you might want to attend some lectures and write some reflections on them if they are to do with social justice and

Georgia Mitchell: upload them to the career hub. And again, you'll get 5 points for that as well. If you're feeling like writing something a little bit more and something you might be really passionate about. You can write a substantial, reflective piece. It can be a video, an essay. So a lot of scope for making something or writing something that you're interested in through a medium that you're interested in and as long as it's about a topic of interest and social justice.

Georgia Mitchell: you can upload this to career Hub, and depending on the approval that you get. It can get you up to 10 to 20 points as well. So a really great opportunity to do something a bit more creative and something of your interest.

Georgia Mitchell: One of my favorites ways to get Roj is the Brennan book program. So you read a book and you write a thousand word reflection on it? I love reading. So it was one of my 1st things I did for my participation in the Roj

Georgia Mitchell: component of my experience with the Brennan program. But there's so many different books you can read. There's so many different. There's a huge list on the Brennan program website. So, you might have already read a book in the last year, and you might want to write a reflection on that. And you get 20 points for that as well. So if you're a book lover like me, I would definitely recommend giving that one a go.

Georgia Mitchell: Thanks, Anthea. Here we’ve just got a little bit of a reminder, Canvas Calendar. I actually only recently discovered Canvas Calendar, so um if you haven’t. Oh the slides gone. But yea Canvas calendar I think, thanks Anthea, you can see updates from the UTS LSS and from Brennan and the faculty of Law. So definitely check that out on your canvas page alongside career hub and the Brennan collective to keep up to date with lots of different events and thing that we have going on over the next few months.

Georgia Mitchell: Here are a few more of our specific Brennan program 
Georgia Mitchell: initiatives that we've got going on this semester for ways in which you can engage with reflections on justice and get some of these points. So we have our author meets, reader, for the Sir Gerard Brennan biography coming up. I think we have a date for that set. Now, if Anthea do you? I think it's the 16th of August. Is that correct?
Anthea Vogl: I think it. We're just finalizing a date. It's been it's just being arranged now. Thanks, Georgia.

Georgia Mitchell: Okay, so keep an ear out. If that's something you are interested in. But considering the Brennan program is named after Sir Gerard Brennan. It's such a fantastic opportunity to hear from the authors of this book, and to celebrate the life and work of Sir Gerard Brennan. So that'll be really exciting if any of you are able to attend that

Georgia Mitchell: we also have 2 of our brand and program. Justice talks coming up in the next month

Georgia Mitchell: we run about 3 of these a semester, and they're always really great to come along to, and really insightful because we get some really great panelists and speakers to hear from the 1st one. Our social justice talk for for the year is on AI and inclusivity in the legal profession. So we're really lucky that we'll be hearing from Angelique Nellis, who is a lawyer at Ashurst, and she's really passionate

Georgia Mitchell: about developments within digital digital assets and artificial intelligence, and how this affects us and our society on a broader level. And this forms part of our tech and social justice week here at UTS. So that'll be a really

Georgia Mitchell: exciting talk and a really topical talk, considering AI is so up and coming, we also have a little bit later on in September, our talk number 5, making the law more responsive to domestic and family violence. And contemplating the question of is criminalizing coercive control the answer. And our. We're very lucky to have our own associate, Professor Jane Wengman. She'll be giving this talk

Georgia Mitchell: and we'll be able to hear her approach taken. And how she's highlighting some of the potentials for the events to better fit with lived experiences of victims and other areas of debate and concern. So if any of those events sound like something you'd be interested in definitely recommend coming along, too. We've got your QR code there to get you onto career hub and so you can register if you would like to join us.

Georgia Mitchell: Thanks, Anthea.

Georgia Mitchell: have a few more Roj. Opportunities here, like Anthea, was discussing the Alan's new to law tech challenge for social justice. The grand final is coming up very soon. Next week. Next Wednesday. So for attending, you

can collect 5 roj points. But also it'd be a great opportunity if it's something you're interested in participating in next year or down the track it. It's a fantastic opportunity to see how the students have

Georgia Mitchell: conducted and facilitated the producing the apps and working with the clients, and it might help you get an idea of what it's about. So I'm really looking forward to that one

Georgia Mitchell: and yet then you can also join a discussion group which I talked about before. As I'm sure you're aware, there's heaps of different opportunities to get your roj points. These are just a few. So just always keep an eye out on career Hub, and also our Facebook page, the Brandon collective because we're always advertising different opportunities for you to participate in.

Georgia Mitchell: Thanks. Cynthia.

Georgia Mitchell: Here, we've just got a little bit of a reminder. Canvas calendar. I actually only recently discovered canvas calendar. So

Georgia Mitchell: if you haven't. Oh, this slide's gone. But yeah, canvas calendar, I think. Thanks. Anthea. You can see updates from the UTS LSS, and from Brennan and the faculty of law. So definitely check that out on your canvas page alongside career Hub and the Brennan Collective to keep up to date with lots of different

Georgia Mitchell: events and things that we've going on over the next few months.

Georgia Mitchell: Thanks. Anthea.

Georgia Mitchell: okay. And a few Lts opportunities that are happening at the moment, and something you might want to participate in. We have a group blood donation this spring session. Which is happening quite soon as well. So there's 2 sessions. You can join Friday, the 6th of September or Tuesday, the 10th of September. And if you're new to the program, or

Georgia Mitchell: you've been meaning to donate blood. Or this is just something that you feel like you might want to join in on. It's a great way to meet your fellow Brennanites and your fellow law students, and to make a difference. So this is a really exciting opportunity that we've got coming up, and if you have the time and the capacity to donate blood, you can scan the QR. Code and express your interest to join.

Georgia Mitchell: and in doing so you will be able to get 3 lts. Hours for blood, or 5 lts. Hours for plasma. So that might be something you're interested in. Thanks, Cynthia.

Georgia Mitchell: and a few more that we've got here listed. UTS helps. Mp. Network is always open for volunteers and a great way to get involved at UTS.

Georgia Mitchell: If you're looking for something more external. Oz harvest is always on the search for volunteers. We heard from Ruby and Inspire Tomorrow Education who are looking for volunteers. In different aspects. So you might want to use if you have a tutoring background and put it to good use through volunteering with inspire tomorrow.
Education.

Georgia Mitchell: So there's lots of opportunities. And there's always plenty more on the Brennan Lts webpage and again, our Brennan collective.

Georgia Mitchell: our Facebook page. We're always posting different lts, opportunities, and all of which have different commitments. Some you might want to pursue an ongoing volunteer opportunity, and you might just want to do one or 2Â HA week here and there, so there's there's opportunities for everyone to participate

Georgia Mitchell: the exact deal.

Georgia Mitchell: I think that brings us to the end of our side of the presentation. But this is a fantastic opportunity. I know some people have been putting comments in the chat, but if anyone wants to ask any further questions, you can put your microphone on or ask in the chat, and we'd love to hear from you and answer any of your questions. If you have any.

Anthea Vogl: Thanks so much, Georgia.

Anthea Vogl: I think Monica here has been busily answering some questions already in the chat, but feel free to pop any further questions you have in the chat or I might stop sharing, so I can see if anyone's raising their hand.

Anthea Vogl: Feel free just to chime in or raise your hand. If you have a question that you'd like to put to us.

Anthea Vogl: no question is too small.

Sophia Mitchell: Really Quick!

Anthea Vogl: Go Ahead Sophia.

Sophia Mitchell: So it's just about what I asked on the chat, but my degree is 5 years, but I only added my law degree into my coming into my second year, so would I still be expected to do the hours for a 5 year degree, even though I couldn't actually like sign up for the Brennan Justice program in my 1st year of Uni.

Anthea Vogl: Yeah. So, as Monica said, you probably would still be required to complete your Lts hours. But it's something that it might be worth sending us a quick email about Sophia. Because, generally, if you have a 5 year law program, it's absolutely the the rew, the number, the 40 h each year
Anthea Vogl: but if you hadn't started, if your law degree itself is 4 years, it might be that it's the 4h, the 4 times 40 h.

Anthea Vogl: So send us an email, and we can look into that for you.

Sophia Mitchell: Thank you.

Anthea Vogl: Any other questions about either getting involved or volunteer opportunities, or any of the requirements, and how they operate.

Anthea Vogl: Just a sign of our comprehensive presentation. I think

Anthea Vogl: great.

Anthea Vogl: if there aren't any further questions, and it's always good.

Anthea Vogl: To

Anthea Vogl: Drag this last little moment out in case anyone's

Anthea Vogl: holding on to a question and hasn't asked it yet.

Anthea Vogl: Okay.

Anthea Vogl: Given that there aren't any questions for the end of this presentation. I just wanted to once again thank everyone for coming particularly to our guest speakers and and Inspire tomorrow Education. If you have any questions, please get in touch with the program, and we look forward to seeing hopefully many of you

Anthea Vogl: as Brennan justice students and getting involved in Brennan activities, and I hope to meet some of you throughout the course of your degrees. Thank you so much.

Georgia Mitchell: Thanks. Everyone.