The Andrew Thirsk Scholarship, in memory of a young partner who displayed the attributes of community leadership that we wish all our people to aspire to. The Scholarship allows one of our promising young leaders to participate in a global PwC corporate community leadership development program which involves working for three months on a United Nations sponsored community initiative in a developing country.
As the fifth recipient of the Scholarship, Debbie Last will work with Indian charity Gran Vikas - a rural development organisation working with poor and marginalised communities of Orissa (near the Bay of Bengal) since 1979.
Debbie, along with winners from The Netherlands, will work specifically on a water and sanitation program. This will build on the work undertaken by the Ulysses team in 2005 and the small pilots currently underway to help Gram Vikas develop an expansion plan beyond the limitations of the organisation’s existing resources. The strategic aim is to have water and sanitation programs supporting 100,000 households in 2010 from the 15,000 touched today.
"I am a strong believer in experiencing life and growing from those experiences and so when asked whether I would be interested in participating in the Ulysses program I saw a wonderful opportunity," says Debbie.
"Not only to give back to a community in a sustainable way but also to grow as a leader and as a mum."
This is a great example of our commitment to responsible leadership. Responsibly we are able to help effect change and deliver sustainable outcomes for diverse communities where the immediate benefit is felt, delivering a greater sense of value and purpose within our leaders and our firm.
