the pen is mightier...

Congratulations to former student, Tess Ikonomou (Graduate 2013)

Tess, who is a Monash journalism graduate and ABC journalist, has been honoured with the Student of the Year Quill Award  at the coveted 2016 Melbourne Press Club awards.

Tess has been recognised for her outstanding work with the news story, Monash University academic denied permanent residency because of autistic son.  

Tess pursed this story, bringing the family's plight to public attention and broke the follow-up story in The Age.  Less than a month later,  Dr Biswajit Banik and his family was granted residency after the assistant minister for immigration intervened. 

Tess was shocked to win the Student of the Year award because of the high journalistic standard in her category.

Speaking at the Melbourne Palladium at Crown Casino on March 17, Tess was humbled to accept the award before Australia’s finest journalists and industry leaders.

Accepting the award, she said, “I’m overwhelmed and can’t quite believe I have been named student journalist of the year for 2016.” 

“I’d like to thank the Melbourne Press Club for honouring me with this award. “I’m thankful for my supportive family, friends, and tutors.”

Staff at Brunswick Secondary College were naturally keen to congratulate Tess and to discuss her pathway from BSC to a successful career in journalism. 

After graduating from BSC, Tess studied for 12 months at Deakin University, before moving over to Monash University to complete her Bachelor of Journalism. To support her studies, Tess took up an internship at the ABC in February 2016. 

"My ABC editor said that because of my performance, I would have a job when I finished my degree. I started working at the ABC in September last year during the final semester of my degree.

When I first started I was rotated between TV and radio but I have been working on a TV program called The World on ABC News 24 for a few months now.

I am extremely fortunate to have had caring and supportive teachers who always pushed their students. At BSC, my peers came from a variety of backgrounds which gave me an insight into other cultures and has placed me in a good position to communicate with others in our inter-connected world."

The BSC community applauds Tess in her pursuit of her goals.  Her persistence and hard work has paid off and it is wonderful to see her recognised for her efforts.  We wish her every success into the future.