THE gap between country and city children's access to further education opportunities is being breached with an education foundation working to boost bush students' futures.
While distance to education institutes or finances can prevent country students from going on to tertiary education, the Country Education Foundation of Australia (CEFA) has been fighting against those obstacles for the past decade.
The national not-for-profit organisation helps rural communities establish local education foundations.
In turn, the local groups raise funds to provide financial assistance to school-leavers to assist them achieve their educational goals.
Since 1993, CEFA has assisted more than 2500 rural and regional students pursue avenues of study they would not normally have been able to do due to distance to their preferred tertiary education institution.
In 2014, grants worth $921,000 assisted more than 450 students across NSW, Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory.
According to CEFA chief executive Sarah Taylor the end of high school can be a difficult time for many rural and regional kids.
"Once school is finished, many rural kids are faced with the reality that the place they've grown up in, or live in, offers limited education or employment opportunities," Ms Taylor said.
"If they want to get into TAFE, university, apprenticeships or jobs, they often have no choice but to move away from home or travel long distances to regional centres.
"That can be a very expensive exercise."
Leaving family, friends and everything that is familiar can also be overwhelming.
Recognising this, a group was formed in Boorowa in 1993 to support and encourage local school leavers to pursue their careers or studies.
Through a membership and subscription system, the Boorowa Education Foundation set about raising funds to provide financial assistance to local students.
Inaugural Boorowa Education Foundation president Nick Burton Taylor said the aim was to show local young people their community believed in them.
"It was a powerful message for our school leavers: that their community was supportive of them taking that next step," Mr Burton Taylor said.
In the first year the Boorowa Education Foundation raised $5000 and provided scholarships to five students.
The concept attracted interest with similar foundations established in Yass, Cowra and Harden.
In 1998 the Country Education Foundation was formed to act as an umbrella organisation and since 2003 the CEFA network has grown to more than 40 local education foundations across many States and territories.
The CEFA concept provides more than monetary grants: the network also supports and mentors students during their academic studies or apprenticeships.
Ms Taylor said the CEFA helped school-leavers with the cost of transport, accommodation, text books, computers, trade tools and equipment, and a whole host of other education-related expenses.
"Our volunteer-run committees spend the year raising money through fundraising activities and donations, in order to help their local school-leavers to pursue their education or career goals," she said.
"By investing in our young people the CEFA is investing in the future of rural and regional Australia."
The CEFA has partnerships with 20 universities across Australia who provide matched funds to boost the local grants.
"It's a great to have the support of so many of Australia's leading universities - their matched funding really makes a difference," Ms Taylor said.
"Our greatest challenge is fundraising - we always have many more students than we can assist and we don't receive government grants.
"All of our work is funded through private and corporate philanthropy."
Dreams turn to reality at Harden
WHEN Maggie-Kate Minogue becomes a doctor it will be a proud day for her and her family.
It's been a long-journey for the Harden local who is the first member of her family to undertake university study.
Ms Minogue (pictured) decided she wanted to become a doctor at just seven years old.
It was then she found herself sitting next to her two-week-old sister in the backseat of the family car, stemming the bleeding from her sisters navel.
Many years later she is studying medicine at the University of NSW - something she couldn't achieve without the support of the Harden District Education Foundation.
It provides a grant each year to cover some of her costs - enough to make the difference between staying in medicine or not pursuing her dream.
"My mother, Kate, is a single mother and is determined in realising her dreams and has always supported our family," Ms Minogue said.
"She is very proud of me striving to get into medicine."
