October 19, 2009
Story By: Sarah Christian
Across the globe, around 140,000 UTS alumni can be found working in a vast range of professions - from government, private business and the community sector. They are renowned for their determination, entrepreneurship, creativity, passion and commitment to bringing about change for the better. The annual UTS: ALUMNI Awards and the ASPIRE! Exhibition celebrated the careers and contributions of a group of inspiring UTS: Law graduates.
Michael Antrum – Alumni Award for Excellence and ASPIRE! Exhibition Feature
Michael Antrum was honoured with the Alumni Award for Excellence for his outstanding contribution to the legal profession, and for his advocacy on a range of social justice issues. Michael has been general counsel for the NSW Police Force since 2006. An accredited specialist in childre's law, Michael has also been the Director and Principal Solicitor of the National Children's and Youth Law Centre. He has acted as a consultant to the Australian Law Reform Commission and to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission on children’s legal issues. He has been the chair of the NSW Law Society's Human Rights Committee and the Children's Issues Committee. Michael is also an Officer in the Australian Army Legal Corps Reserve and he has a strong professional and personal interest in international humanitarian law since 2004. Michael has also held the role of company secretary to the Whitlam Institute.
Clary Castrission - ASPIRE! Exhibition Feature
UTS: Law graduate Clary Castrission was honoured in this Exhibition for his achievements in the area of social justice. During his years as a law student at UTS, Clary was told by Professor Sam Blay that he could either shuffle paper in an office or do the work that needed to be done in the developing world himself. Clary saw this as a challenge and took it up with gusto, eventually co-founding the 40K Home Foundation. 40K Home takes a systematic approach to poverty eradication in the developing world through executing tangible projects for the benefit of whole communities. The Foundation is currently building a four-story eco-shelter and community learning centre for the children of quarry workers in Bangalore who are born into bleak and grinding poverty.
Justice Tricia Kavanagh - ASPIRE! Exhibition Notable Alumni Feature
Also featured at the ASPIRE! Exhibition was the Honourable Justice Tricia Kavanagh for her pioneering career in the legal procession. Justice Kavanagh was seconded to serve as one of three full time Commissioners on the Interim Children's Commission in 1973, and after completing her Bachelor of Laws at UTS in 1981, she was admitted as a barrister of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. In 1998 she obtained her Doctors of Philosophy in Law from UTS and was sworn in as a judge of the I Industrial Relations Commission of New South Wales. Dedicated to community service, she is a Trustee, Powerhouse Museum; Trustee, Australian Maritime Museum; Deputy Chair, Australian Sports Drug Agency and Chair, Family and Children's Service Agency.
