In 2013, Euan Crone, a member of AIIA VIC who participated in the AIIA VIC 2013 Study Tour of Myanmar, kindly established a charitable endowment fund giving grants up to $5,000 per person to deepen awareness of Asia among young Australians.

Scholarships are open to young Australian citizens and permanent residents who are members of the AIIA in any Australian State or Territory.

The inaugural recipients of the Euan Crone Asian Awareness Scholarship were announced on 11 December 2013, and the second round was announced at the AIIA National Conference on 27 October 2014. Four successful candidates were chosen: Liam Blackford (WA), Ben Dickson (QLD), Marlene Millott (VIC) and Samantha Tasic (VIC).

Liam will utilise his scholarship to study Mandarin Chinese at Shanghai Jiaotong University School of International Education. He wishes to advance the strong and enduring relationship between China and Australia by building an appreciation of Chinese culture, language and Sino-Australian business to further his career aspirations in the field of commercial law.

Ben will undertake an Honours research project on the disease lymphatic filariasis (LF) in Myanmar, which is a mosquito-borne tropical disease caused by the worm Wuchereria bancrofti that affects 120 million people in 81 countries. Ben is passionate about addressing global health issues and wishes to aid the Myanmar Ministry of Health to eliminate this debilitating and preventable disease.

Marlene has been accepted into the Australian Consortium for In-Country Indonesian Studies (ACICIS) Journalism Professional Practicum (JPP) in Jakarta and will utilise this scholarship to deepen her understanding of media communication and how this influences Australian-Indonesian relations.

Samantha will utilise her scholarship to undertake an unpaid United Nations internship at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia to bring key members of the Khmer Rouge to trial. She is keenly interested in the impact of the justice system on people’s lives, businesses and freedoms and she is dedicated to bringing justice to those who are alleged to have perpetrated the atrocities of the Cambodian genocide.