What are the Trailblazer Awards?
The Trailblazer Awards celebrates Year 12 students beyond their ATAR, recognising those who have overcome personal challenges and used their final year of school to positively impact their community.
Our Trailblazers will have the opportunity to network with industry leaders, build their personal brand and profile as a future leader, get exam ready in our 1-day HSC Trials Accelerator, and so much more!
Find out how Munira Tabassum navigated Year 12 differently throughout 2022!
Introducing: Munira Tabassum Ahmed
Category: Social Impact & Change
School: Baulkham Hills High School
State: NSW
Career Aspiration: Health field
Achievements
- Awarded the 2022 Kat Muscat Fellowship
- Year 12 Prefect
- Hills Shire Youth Ambassador for local council for the 2021-22 term
What makes Munira Tabassum a Trailblazer?
Driven by the ideals of social justice, intersectional empathy, and self-expression, Munira Tabassum is a strong leader within her local and schooling community. Awarded the 2022 Kat Muscat Fellowship, Munira Tabassum has held several prestigious leadership roles, including as Hills Shire Youth Ambassador for her local council, a Youth Curator and Moderator (Speaker) for the Sydney Writers’ Festival, and a co-host for the Culture Makers Lab workshop with the Immigration Museum in Victoria.
As an Indigenous Issues and Consent Consultant, Munira Tabassum’s position as a Year 12 Prefect has seen her help organise events and workshops to facilitate inclusive discussions about Indigenous issues and consent in her school. Her passion for writing has seen her work be published in Best of Australian Poems 2021, Meanjin, Australian Poetry Journal, The Lifted Brow, Cordite, and more!
Recognising Munira Tabassum’s enormous talent for writing, the 2022 Kat Muscat Fellowship provides funding and professional development for the manuscript of a writer aged 16-30 of an underrepresented gender. Offering $5000 in funding to work on her manuscript, research, workshops and interview, the Fellowship has supported Munira Tabassum in using her writing as a powerful tool to focus on the values of social justice and intersectional empathy.
“The Fellowship has broadened my perspective on the role of writing in fostering intersectional empathy. Writing can offer someone insight into a completely disparate worldview and allow an individual to re-evaluate their perspectives.”
Within her role as a Youth Ambassador for the Hills Shire Council, Munira Tabassum has used her passion for social change and empathetic practices to create initiatives that benefit her local community. During Youth Week 2022, Munira Tabassum was responsible for an initiative that offered a free workshop on digital writing to young people in her area, helping them to build their self-expression as a way of improving mental health and wellbeing.
Year 12 is a challenging year for any high school student, especially when you have as many leadership positions and co-curricular activities on your plate as Munira Tabassum does. Despite facing difficulties in finding the right balance between academic pressures and wellbeing, Munira Tabassum has looked towards her strong support networks to guide her along her amazing journey and maintain her welfare.
After completing Year 12, Munira Tabassum is interested in working in the health field. Her passion for fostering empathetic communities and improving the wellbeing of those around her drives her ambition to work directly with people who need the most support!
Munira Tabassum’s amazing commitment to promoting social justice and intersectional empathy through her leadership positions and her talented writing skills is why she is one of our Top 50 Trailblazers!
The Top 50 Year 12 Trailblazer Awards
The Trailblazer Awards aim to identify and celebrate students who use their final years of school to invest holistically in the skills and experiences that will maximise their own future opportunities and make a contribution to the future of our society.
Our winners for the Year 12 Trailblazer Awards have demonstrated initiative in volunteering for their school or community, have participated in co-curricular activities, and have held leadership positions within their schools.
Learn more about who placed in the Top 50 Year 12 Trailblazers here!
About Art of Smart Education
At Art of Smart Education, we’re an award-winning provider of holistic tutoring and mentoring for students in years K-12. Our mission is to help students answer the difficult question, “What am I going to do with my life when I finish school, and how do I get there?”
We understand that true success involves mastering study, career and leadership skills while maintaining your wellbeing, not just excelling in academics and as a result, over the last decade, we’ve supported over 10,000 students to achieve their best and maximise their options for life after school.
Each year over one million young Australians, parents, and teachers access our guides, videos and resources to navigate the journey through high school.
