Sunday 8 November 2015

Annual Awards Night 2015

Each year, ACPE hosts an Annual Awards night to celebrate academic, sporting and other student achievements. It's a great chance for tutorial groups, University Games teams and the various extra-curricular programs come together. Everybody gets dressed up, enjoys a sit down dinner and a lot of dancing at the end! The night was held at the beautiful Daltone House on Jones Bay Wharf.  Most of this years CEP team were in attendance and even cleaned up a few awards!

Stephanie - Mentor Program Award
Tara - Academic Recognition Award for Health Science
Elana - Max Hector Champion of Champions Medal
Sergio - Daniel Berry Student Service Award
Emily - Bronze Medal EUG's Women's Futsal
Caitlin - Tom Carr-Boyd Community Service Award
Sammy - Daniel Berry Student Service Award, Team of the Year - AUGS Jazz Team
Emelia - Team of the Year - AUGS Jazz Team
Krissy - Team of the Year - AUGS Jazz Team











Monday 2 November 2015


I think that, by far, this is one of the most powerful photos I have from the three years I have been to Cambodia. Where I stand, the land is 'new'. The area has been cleaned or rubbish and replaced with a slide, swings, a brand new basketball court and clean drinking water. Children have a safe, supervised place to play out of the harsh sun. Then there is the opposite side. Remnants of the Steung Meanchey garbage dump and peoples front yards. The grass is struggling to grow through the rubbish and for us, it is a clear 'no-go-zone'. For some of the locals, this is another days work, looking for recyclables to fill their carts.


In the original design for the new Neeson-Cripps Academy, an incredible state of the art science and tertiary facility - this is the land it was being built on. Currently, it seems the design location has changed. These sites are becoming less familiar in Steung Meanchey. New houses being built, debris being cleaned away, fresh grass and plants growing through. I can't wait to be back and see how the community has changed in one year. 

- Caitlin 

Loud Shirt Day!


Trivia Night

On Thursday, October 29, we held our annual trivia night. This night is our major fundraiser for the program and is a great bonding experience for the team. The night was held in the conference room in the Novotel at Sydney Olympic Park. The room is given to us to hire free of charge and the company has done so for the past five years - a very generous act. Thankyou!

Each year sees tables of family, friends and staff pour in to the room for four rounds of trivia, a silent auction and many mini games. This year we had the usual - lucky/unlucky dip, heads or tails and slide the coin. There were also a few new additions, the clinker game and peel the minite. The night went very well, raising a total of $5109.50 to donate to CCF.



Bikes4Life

When we arrived to CCF last year and took a walk through the Steung Meanchey community, we saw an incredible sight. A huge shipping container that had 'Love Sydney' painted on it's side. We later found out that the container was sent from an organisation named Bikes4Life that fixes up bikes to send to countries in need. After Kez, one of our staff members, got in contact with the Sydney warehouse, the team organised a day to go and lend a had. In the few short hours, there were 102 bikes prepared and ready to ship to people in need.



Our mission.

This is the fifth year the ACPE Cultural Experience Program has ran. The program came to be when Kellie, the student services manager wanted to create an extra experience for the students. The aim was to take a team of dedicated students to provide Dance and PD/H/PE programs to some of Cambodia's most impoverished children. Thus, the partnership between ACPE and The Cambodian Children's Fund (CCF) was formed.

This years team of 14 students and 5 staff will travel to Phnom Penh on November 14th for three weeks. With only three of the students and two staff on the team having been to Cambodia before, we are very to excited to immerse the new students and staff in the Cambodian culture. In 2013, a graduate volunteer program was established, and has seen three alumni live in Phnom Penh from two to six months as the PE teacher. This year, alumnus Mitch Harry moved to Phnom Penh in August and is there for several months. His work in the months leading up to the teams arrival sets a great foundation for the team to continue with, as we have seen with the other teams and alumni in previous years.

The team is set to raise $10,000 to donate to the fund. In previous years, the money has been used to build playgrounds and create scholarships for university students. With over $60,000 raised in the past 4 years, we are excited to see how the money will benefit the students and the community.

Stay tuned to watch our adventure unfold.