KEY NOTES
- Forming one umbrella to represent all the students
- Creating a network to benefit all
- Unite all Assyrians from different church denominations
Australian-born Assyrian from Sydney, Mr Richard Yalda is the President of the newly formed association.
Mr. Yalda graduated from the University of NSW in 2020 as a civil engineer. Now he works at an international construction firm in Australia.
Richard says that the formation of the Assyrian student's association of Australia was very important to expand our network of communications with other students.
He also believes the association will be the voice representing all the Assyrian university students in Australia.
Richard says the student associations of UNSW, UNSYD and the Strathfield Assyrian Society, now are all under one roof.
He says the aim is to have one voice that will represent the students in the Assyrian community in Australia.
When there is an event in the community like, Assyrian new year, Martyrs day, Assyria day, The Assyrian organisation are confused as who to invite as a representative of Assyrian university students.
Some of the objectives of this association is, to make others aware of the existence of the Assyrians and to support students who plan to enter university, share with them the experience of others, so they can make better choices for their future.
Also, the association aims at connecting all Assyrian university students, networking them to exchange ideas, help each other in their research and studies.
Mr Yalda says "For example, I am a structural engineer, if another student in the network is studying civil engineering or about to finish his or her degree, it is possible the I can help them find a job in this field"
Mr Yalda talks about the increasing number of Assyrian students in universities.
He says when he and co-founder of the Assyrian Association, Mr. Barseen Oshana, there were only 5 Assyrian students, now, there are about 25.
Now, at the UNSYD, there are 25-30 students and in the Australian Catholic University, Strathfield Campus, there are about 15 students.
"I am a structural engineer, I can help other graduates to find a job in the field"
There are other Assyrian students at the Macquarie university, and in the last few year, a large number of students started studying at the university of Western Sydney.
Unfortunately, he says, there are no statistics for the actual number of Assyrian student in those two universities.
He is determined to get them to establish their own branch and join the Assyrian Student's Association of Australia.
Combining all of those students under one umbrella is a great network that will benefit all, Mr Yalda says.
As for plans to expand the association to Victoria, Mr Yalda says, already they have a member in the central committee, Miss Adriana Esho, who is studying medicine at the University of Melbourne.
she is the contact there and she aims to establish the Association in the University of Melbourne.
Finally Richard says that the Association is open to all Assyrians from any church denominations or names, Assyrian, Chaldean and Syriac, and he says " At the end, they all part of one nation. Sorayeh. "
