Home » Podcast » A chat with Wallace Jin | Episode 18

A chat with Wallace Jin | Episode 18

 

In this week’s episode, Josh is talking to Wallace Jin who was the 2020 7NEWS Young Achiever of the Year Awards for Victoria.

Wallace is passionate about empowering the disadvantaged. He serves as the CEO at CHASE (Community Health Advancement and Student Engagement), a 100% volunteer-run and youth-led charity dedicated to engaging, educating and empowering disadvantaged Victorians aged 16 to 18 through health education and personal mentorship. As CEO and leader of the CHASE Management Team, he is responsible for the overall strategic direction and delivery of the program. During his tenure, he has introduced a new organisational structure to minimise communication bottlenecks and improved opportunities for volunteers to develop professionally. Besides being a full-time medical student, Wallace also volunteers with 180 Degrees Consulting, International House Graduate Student Association, Parity Education and Teach for Australia.

In this episode:

  • Hear how dedicated Wallace is as a volunteer CEO to make a difference
  • Be inspired by his commitment whilst also undertaking his medical degree – where does he find the time?
  • Reliant on volunteer support, maybe you would like to help? Check out the website or contact Wallace directly at wallace.jin@gmail.com

Links

Connect with Wallace on LinkedIn

Connect with CHASE on Facebook

Connect with CHASE on LinkedIn

Want to volunteer, support or know more? Head to the CHASE website

 

Follow us on our Inspirational.Australians Instagram Page

Want to nominate someone? (It can take as little as 2 minutes to recognise someone making a difference)

Like some more information on Corporate Partnership?

 

Transcript 

Annette (00:04):

Welcome to the Inspirational Australians podcast, where we chat to people, making a difference in their communities and in the lives of others. And here is your host for today, Josh Griffin.

Josh (00:19):

For today’s dose of inspiration, we’re speaking with Wallace Jin, and Wallace was actually very recently announced as the Victorian Young Achiever of the year for 2020. Wallace is passionate about empowering the disadvantage, he serves as the CEO of CHASE (Community Health Advancement and Student Engagement), which is a 100% volunteer run and youth led charity dedicated to engaging, educating, and empowering disadvantage Victorians aged 16 to 18 through health education and personal mentorship as CEO and leader of the CHASE management team, Wallace is responsible for the overall strategic direction and delivery of the program. During his tenure, he has introduced a new organizational structure to minimize communication bottlenecks and improved opportunities for volunteers to develop professionally. Besides being a full-time medical student Wallace, also volunteers with 180 Degrees Consulting, International House Graduates to do student association, parity education and teach for Australia. Wallace. I’m going to get you straight in here because that is quite a bio and a welcome on. Thanks for joining us today Wallace.

Wallace (01:29):

Well, thanks so much, Josh, for having me. It’s a pleasure.

 

Josh:

No problems at all. So the first thing I wanted to ask you is CHASE is a 100% charity and volunteer based organization. And that’s including you as a CEO, is that right?

 

Wallace:

Yeah. It’s one of the most, one of the things that I’m most proud of CHASE is that we are a hundred percent volunteer led and also predominantly youth led. I think it’s what makes our program quite unique. And it’s also what gives it a lot of the, um, strengths that it has working with young adults is that we are youth led, we’re volunteer led. So we, um, uh, fortunately, you know, very able to build rapport with a lot of the students that we work with. Um, and so it’s, it’s, it’s happened, you know, it grew, the organization grew, um, or started as a, as a, you know, a thing with between a couple of friends. And since then we’ve maintained that volunteer, that youth led nature, it’s actually grown to become one of our strongest, um, assets, I think.

 

Josh:

Yeah, that’s an interesting point to make that some people might say that as, um, a weakness, but that’s a limitation being volunteer run and led. And, but that’s, you know, I think I agree with you there, that’s an asset and that’s the strength behind it, but because we know that the people involved are volunteering their time and they must, they must really believe in it. Um, and then you can get great inputs from everyone.

 

 

Wallace (03:00):

Absolutely. I think one of the things that I love about CHASE is the culture and the people there. We have a management team of about 50 people, um, with a broader volunteer base of about 80 people. So it’s an organization that’s about 130 strong or so, and the CHASEs or CHASEs, it’s almost like my second family. Everyone’s very passionate. It’s very kind, very caring. And it brings together a lot of people who are very similar minded. So I’m very grateful and very lucky for them.

Josh (03:30):

Yep. And so how does that fit in with your medical studies? We’re just talking about it in the bio. You mentioned to me off air that you’re in your last year, is that right?

Wallace (03:40):

Yeah. Yeah. So CHASE is something that I’ve done throughout my medical school. I’m currently in my last year of a medical degree at the University of Melbourne. It’s a four year postgraduate degree. Um, so this is actually my seventh year of university. Um, CHASE fits into this bigger picture as, as just, you know, my primary voluntary commitment outside of med school. That’s something that I’m very passionate about. And I believe that, you know, as, as young people, um, we have a lot of potential to contribute. And so one of the ways in addition to studying, to serve people in hospitals as a doctor, is by serving the community through community led initiatives like CHASE.

Josh (04:25):

Yeah. And where do you find in your experience, I suppose, being through university and you’re 17 now, you’ve obviously been through a lot of that study and talk to different people and be involved with different groups. You know, what’s the main difference there between community led and maybe something that is a bit more government driven or, or perhaps from other kind of parties.

Wallace (04:47):

That’s a really great question. I think community led health initiatives have a really important role in the broader delivery of health care in the country. So if we think about the different components of a health system, you know, quite simplistically, you’ve got the, the hospitals, um, which, you know, are mostly public and government run. You’ve got the sort of community-based health organizations, much like CHASE, but also a lot of other really important health organizations. Then you’ve got the suite of sort of private operators as well. I think community health initiatives serve a really important role because they often bridge the gap, between the health care sector and the people who need healthcare the most, um, because, you know, being able to work in the community directly, they’re able to connect with, with those people who are often at greatest disadvantage. Um, and so I think that’s, that’s one really important role of community health initiatives is that they, they connect people. Um, I think another really important role is that often the work that we do is more on a, more on a primary preventative level of, of health care, which is essentially saying, you know, if we think about, tertiary and secondary health care as the health care that you received when you were in a hospital, so you get sick, you go to a hospital and then you receive treatment for that. That is secondary and tertiary healthcare. Primary health care is a step before that, but says, I want to prevent you from getting sick in the first place. And so that’s where community initiatives like CHASE and all the other great organizations out there have a really important role through health literacy or education or engagement at an early level to prevent disease from happening in the first place.

Josh (06:48):

Yeah. That’s an important distinction to make. And I think good explanation for some people, you know, might not be focused on healthcare and wonder primary health care, what does that mean exactly? That’s a really good way of explaining it, Wallace, thank you. And that must be so important right now. I mean, it’s always important, but with, you know, the COVID situation, this global pandemic we’re facing, has that really changed CHASE’s you know, your main way you guys operate and your attention or what’s going on with that?

Wallace (07:19):

On an operational level its affected our organization quite significantly. I think most organizations in our society have been. CHASE specifically because we’re a mentoring program. We send out mentors directly into the schools who work with small groups of students and because of certain restrictions, we haven’t been able to do that this year. So we’ve had to rely a lot on, on the teachers and virtual delivery platforms to continue delivering our curriculum in schools this year. So certainly there’s been a really big shift, um, for the organization on an operational front. I think thinking more broadly to what COVID means for CHASE and other community led initiatives. The pandemic has really highlighted just how important population health is. We’ve seen that if the population health cannot be secured, then everything else comes secondary to that. So the, the, you know, we’ve seen a lot of economic troubles. We’ve seen a lot of geopolitical troubles. And so health is almost, at least from my perspective, the, the fundamental thing that has to happen before, um, everything else in a society can function normally. So I think going forward organizations that work in this population community health space will be of increasing importance. Um, very, very important because they will be sort of addressing some of the gaps that we have currently in the primary health care system.

Josh (09:09):

Wallace, with what you’re saying about the importance of a population’s health being at the forefront when, when some people, when, uh, you know, some commentators discussing how to combat COVID and, you know, the health of the economy versus a population to me, you would have some pretty strong thoughts on that.

Wallace (09:27):

An excellent question, Josh. And, and this is sort of fundamental question that our leaders  in our society, asked ourselves every day, you know, every day that we’re evaluating our situation, they’re essentially weighing up different factors of which health and of which the economy are two very big ones. I think for me, you can’t have one without the other, in one sense, you know, health, the delivery of healthcare, the successful delivery of health care, I should say is contingent on having a strong well-funded economy. Um, because at the end of the day, healthcare does receive a lot of economic support from our public system to keep functioning and to deliver the, the great services that it does. Now. Similarly, on the flip side, you can’t have a thriving economy, uh, without a robust health system, because if we think about what makes an economy thrive, it’s the individual people are being productive. And that, that causes a whole chain of events that causes overall growth. Um, but if someone can’t be productive because they’re falling sick, or if they can’t be productive because they lost their job, um, or because they’re stuck at home, then you start seeing a lot of implications on the economy as what you’ve seen. So I think this debate between the health and the economy is not as simplistic as, um, you know, one is the opposite of the other. I think there’s a lot more nuance here. And so that’s why all the decisions that we have to make have to be considered from a variety of perspectives. And it’s what I think, you know, our leaders have done exceptionally well during this pandemic, um, is that, you know, they’ve, they’ve done their best at considering all the different perspectives and coming up with a solution that is probably the best of a bad bunch because, you know, quite, quite honestly, it’s, it’s very hard to deal with a pandemic, um, in, in the first place.

Josh (11:32):

Yeah. I tend to agree with that. Well, listen, I think you said that very well. It is very hard to deal with this situation. And so, no, I think I’ve been actually really pleasantly surprised that importance put on people’s lives in terms from a health perspective, they’re the actions made by many of our leaders have been in some ways at the detriment of their own political gains. So, you know, a lot of ways they’re putting the people first and not the politics of it. So, yeah, I agree. But you’re saying they’re intrinsically linked that argument between economy and health. So yeah. Thanks for your thoughts on that is good to get, you know, that’s logical, um, and important, you know, views from people in the healthcare system and who are working with people every day in the community. So I think sometimes it’s great, you know, that we can get that input from you all. So thank you. Yes. It was spoken about CHASE and he was a medical student and those kinds of, uh, some of the reasons that you were announced as the Victorian young Achiever of the year, a couple of weeks ago, what’s it been like since then for you kind of, uh, you know, I know that you interviewed on 7News, I guess, was that, that must’ve been kind of cool.

Wallace (12:43):

The interview with 7News was a unique experience for me, I’ve never been on TV before. And in all honesty, Josh it’s, it’s sort of, you know, the restrictions of Melbourne at the moment. Um, it’s sort of felt like business as usual. Like I’ve had to just sort of get on with life because there’s not much else that we can do apart from that. I think thinking more broadly though, you know, of course I was, when I first heard the news, I was incredibly humbled, incredibly surprised by the award. You know, there are so many great young people out there doing incredible things and the, you know, the people who came and who were finalists on that night are a great example of that. And so I think, you know, hearing and seeing all their stories, um, really made me just feel incredibly humbled to receive the, the overall Young Achiever of the Year Award. But, um, yeah, it’s, it’s been, it’s been incredibly, um, humbling experience, I think.

Josh (13:48):

Yeah. Well, let’s touch on what you said that it is a bit weird that normally we would have a big fancy event and you’d be at the event and up on stage. And to some of the feedback I’ve heard from people recently is that it’s a bit surreal to kind of win these kinds of awards just at home, and you’re a hundred or whatever it is, you know, it’s kind of a bit more, um, when you’re there live in a room with 500 people and you’re up on a stage, it’s like a bit more, what this looks like, is this stunning? Um, yeah. So that is kind of the funny side. What was it like for you joining that virtual event?

Wallace (14:27):

Uh, so I had made sure that I found the best background that I could in my room. And then I set the camera up such that it captured that, and then put on a suit, which for the first time I’ve done that in, in many, many months now, because I haven’t even had a chance to go outside and then tuned into the event. I think it was a fantastically run event and, and, you know, hats off to all the people involved who made that virtual event possible because I think it might’ve might be the first time that we’ve actually done this for the awards. Um, and then, yeah, everything’s sort of just went, went really quickly. It was all a blow, quite surreal, like you said. Um, my, my leadership category was first up and I was just so taken aback when I was nominated as the winner of that category. And then fast forward an hour and a half, two hours, we’re at the final at the very end at the overall award. And, and I hear my name called out and I was just like, I, I don’t believe this and I remember very clearly for the next, um, for the next sort of full five hours before I went to bed. I was just like, this is I’m in a dream. This isn’t real. Um, it very much felt surreal.

Josh (15:40):

Yeah. It’s kind of crazy. You’re right. Like just being on the call and then all of a sudden, they’re this kind of a big announcements being made. So, yeah, that’s funny as well. I forgot actually, cause I was watching the event that you were the very first category, so there was that big white in between. But um, anyone listening, who’s interested to see what that was like. They can head to the Facebook page of 7News Young Achiever Awards, hit the Facebook page there and the, uh, Facebook live video. It’s still obviously up on our page. Um, yeah. And, uh, thanks for your comment. You know, I want to shout out to our colleague, Demi Cox, who met at the event, she did an incredible job. She managed that and should she said it was, um, was the second actually the virtual awards night that we had done, but she managed those first two in New South Wales, one of the big ones. So she was really the trailblazer for us. And, uh, we do run these awards around the country. So the rest of us are just copying her good work now. So we’ve got to shout out to Demi, she’s a legend. Well Wallace, um, you know I’m interested to hear as well, like from going back, this must’ve been last year. Now I’m thinking about it when you were nominated in the awards. If I’m not, I’m asking you to think back too far. Can you remember about that back in that period and what all was like when you nominated, um, in the, uh, the leadership category you said.

Wallace (17:05):

Yeah, that was at the very start of this year, I think. Or the, or the late last year, The postural festival almost blooded into one really. Yeah, being nominated was, was, was, um, incredible. I mean, I, I, I just, you know, I don’t do my work for any sort of external recognition and I do it because it has, has purpose has meaning and it makes me feel happy and I enjoy it. And so to be nominated for, for this incredibly prestigious award and I was, I was quite shocked. Um, I was incredibly, um, humbled by that as well. I just remember thinking to myself that you being nominated for that, you know, um, inspires me to want to work even more and to work even harder, doing the things that I do. And so this year, I think having been nominated for this I’ve, I’ve really, you know, putting myself into sixth gear and everything that I do. Um, and very lucky that that has turned out well in the end.

Josh (18:14):

Yeah, for sure. So, you know, in addition to CHASE, um, you mentioned that you do some volunteering in other areas as well. You’re happy to talk about that.

Wallace (18:26):

Yeah, of course, of course. So I’ve worked, I’ve volunteered, I should say in a few different spheres currently, I’m also volunteering at the International House Graduate Student Association, which is a student body that represents approximately 75 international post-graduates at the University of Melbourne. And I’m quite passionate about this particular area because we’ve seen from the pandemic that international students have had a very, very difficult time. You know, they’ve not only are, they’re very far from home with a lot of them unable to return home, but the supports that they have available to them are a lot less compared to what your, you know, what your typical Australian would have. And so I’ve seen firsthand how vulnerable this population is and, and how, how much they’ve struggled. And so to be able to support them through this challenging period has been an incredible privilege. It hasn’t been easy and it hasn’t been perfect the whole way a but I think anything that we can do to support our most vulnerable, no matter who they are or where they’re from, I think that’s a really important thing. Outside of that, I also volunteer for a, um, volunteer consultancy called 180 Degrees Consulting. This is a way for passionate young and university students to give pro bono consulting to different not-for-profit and charity organizations around Australia. It’s a worldwide organization operating in around 35 to 40 countries with a hundred and something different branches all around the world. And for me, this is, you know, a completely different sort of volunteering because here I’m having to sort of employ a different set of skills, you know, problem solving, critical thinking. It’s very, almost corporate or professional in nature yet it’s still volunteering and making a positive impact. And so I, I really enjoy being able to combine best of those two worlds.

Josh (20:40):

Yeah, for sure. And that would be quite different than you talking about corporate kind of, um, you know, aspect coming back to CHASE a little bit. Do you have to ever find yourself in that corporate kind of mode for CHASE given that you’re CEO and sometimes you do have to deal with that kind of thing?

Wallace (21:00):

Absolutely. I think as CEO, there are times where you do have to put on that corporate hat. Um, for example, if you’re pitching for a major grant from a philanthropy, or if you’re making a public appearance at a, at a forum, that’s probably where the official quote unquote CEO hat comes on. But I think outside of that, you know, very rarely do I consider this CEO position as a, you know, standard hierarchical CEO position. For me, it’s just an opportunity to put, to work very closely with all the very passionate volunteers that, that, that I’m very lucky to work with. Um, and a lot of the decisions that we make as an organization are made as the team, as a collective, uh, leveraging all the different perspectives and backgrounds that is there. So at least within CHASE, because I suppose we are small, we are growing, um, and we all youth led a lot of the traditional cultural norms we can bypass and get straight to what, what matter and what works best for us.

Josh (22:06):

For sure. And that would be, yeah, a real strength, as you said at the top of this interview, um, I’m, you know, I’m hearing a common theme here that you are really passionate about working with people from disadvantaged backgrounds or who experiences the disadvantage and were vulnerable. Can you tell me where that kind of drive came from to do that kind of work?

Wallace (22:26):

Absolutely. I grew up in Brisbane and my parents were migrants from Hong Kong. I was born in Brisbane. Um, and so growing up in that sort of intersection between Western culture and Australia and then my Eastern background, I feel like that gave me very early perspective into a variety of different issues and are quite readily saw that, you know, one of the biggest differences, one of the biggest issues that I saw was that there was a big gap between the opportunities that, that people like myself growing up, growing up in Australia had compared to people in other countries, um, where, you know, perhaps there were less developed, um, and the opportunities that they had. And so I think growing up, I sort of had this subconscious realization of the inequities that underpin a lot of our society and because I really wanted to tackle that, um, I, I really wanted to work with people where that could benefit the most. And so working with disadvantaged, working with the vulnerable is I suppose my way of trying to combat that inequity and build a stronger future for those who might not have the same opportunities that we do.

Wallace (24:02):

For Sure. And, you know, that’s so great that a lot of people notice that, but not many stand up and dedicate themselves to addressing the issue. Wallace, to me, that is what is inspirational about you and makes you a new inspirational Australian. So thanks for that mate, cause it’s great. You know, we need people like you in this world, you know, can you share some stories of some of the disadvantaged people that you help, whether it’s through CHASE or, um, you know, in other areas. And is there a common theme that you would say, you know, coming from a health education standpoint that we, that people can do to kind of help a situation?

Wallace (24:41):

At CHASE, we work very closely with year 11 students and we work, we specifically work with your 11th students because that point in time represents a key transition period for them. Transitioning from teenage years to the beginning of your adult life. And so the reason why we chose to work with them is because if you can influence them at that time in life, then the impact that you can have will stay for them, stay with them for the rest of their life. And so I, I recall, you know, working with one particular student, um, who I think reflects the story of CHASE very well. Um, she was a student at one of our schools at Culpa Field College, um, year 11 and prior to working with CHASE, she came from a background where she was relatively low socio economic status, not incredibly engaged with school and sort of just came to school because she had to now over the year, you know, being able to work with her, we saw very quickly that she had a lot of potential. We saw that she was able to think very creatively and then she had this, this compassion, this care that was, that was incredible. Um, and so being able to sort of cultivate that through the curriculum that we have in CHASE by teaching her avenues where she can channel that, that compassion, um, that she had, um, I think was, was one of the, one of the most incredible things that, that I can remember. And then after the program finished, she eventually went on to join the department of health and human services, where she now works. And we caught up with her, when she started off, when she started her new job. And she said that something along the lines of at least, um, I’m incredibly grateful to have been a part of CHASE because CHASE taught me that I can do so much more than what I thought I was capable of. It sparked in me a passion for health. And through that passion, I’ve now discovered that I can leverage my skills and my compassion to work and serve the people around me. And so that’s why I’ve decided to work with the department of health and human services. And so I think, you know, hear that story always makes me, um, a little bit warm and fuzzy and I think just goes to reflect the impact that people can have if they’re truly passionate about making it.

Josh (27:27):

Yeah, for sure. And that is a, that’s a great story. Well, listen, you know, as you said, it makes you fuzzy when you make a profound difference in someone’s life like that. No, you can’t put a value or a kind of on how much, how important that is, because as you said, working with your students is a pivotal time and that’s obviously set her up now for the rest of her life to have that, you know, what a great thing to have that belief in yourself and you didn’t have that previously. Yeah. It’s incredible. Now, if people want to know more about CHASE, then where would you direct them?

 

 

Wallace (28:03):

I’d recommend you sign up to our social medias. So Facebook is probably our most active platform. You can find us by typing in CHASE Melbourne, @CHASEmelbourne or by searching our full name, Community Health Advancement and Student Engagement. We’re also on LinkedIn and we have a website CHASEprogram.org.au. Otherwise, I’m very happy to be contacted personally about anything CHASE or non CHASE related as well.

Josh (28:34):

Yeah, that’s great. Well, listen, are there volunteering opportunities for people even through COVID now, are you still able to interact with students?

Wallace (28:44):

Absolutely. I mean, our organization is still very active at the moment. And if you’re interested in volunteering, if you’re interested in volunteering with a group of very passionate young individuals, I should say, um, then we would love to see you here at CHASE. Um, we’re always hiring, especially for our mentors who directly work with students. We’re always hiring for mentors and it’s a very big cohort, but if you also want to work in a more operations funnel sort of organizational role, then we join our management team because that’s where you can develop a lot of these professional skills that might be valuable to you as well.

Josh (29:24):

Yeah. So I assume you’re engaging the students via zoom and, and things like that at the moment.

 

Wallace:

Yeah.

 

Josh:

Um, you know, you might not know this yet, but with the latest kind of news about restrictions easing here in Melbourne, is that opening up opportunities for you to get into schools again and see people? Or how is that work?

Wallace (29:45):

Well, I definitely very excited about that news of restrictions gradually easing, we are playing it a bit cautious because we want to make sure that we don’t double back on ourselves in case anything changes, but we definitely anticipate that we’ll be able to return back to us full in person face-to-face delivery. Um, definitely for the next year for program, that would be, you know, what, we’re what we’re hoping for.

Josh (30:10):

Yeah, exactly. To start 2021 and especially because there’ll be a whole fresh batch of students at that time.

 

 

 

Wallace:

Absolutely!

 

Josh:

That will work nicely! Now, speaking of next year. So you’re in your final year of medicine, uh, is that currently 2020 finishing up or is that crossing over into 2021?

Wallace (30:30):

I finish at the end of this year. So in about two months, I’ll be graduating.

Josh (30:36):

Wow. It’s exciting. And uh, you know, can you tell us and you might not know exactly, but what does 2021 hold for Wallace?

Wallace (30:48):

That’s a great question. And I suppose I don’t really have a clear answer for you, Josh, because in all honesty, I don’t know what opportunities might come up. I mean, on one hand I’ll be working at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, I know that for certain. Aside from that, I think one of the things that I really hope to keep doing is to keep working with disadvantage, to keep working in the community space and to keep working in health opportunities. And then hopefully having that sort of professional background at least formally recognized next year will help in doing that. But whatever life takes me, I’ll follow, I suppose.

Josh (31:31):

That’s a good answer, Wallace. I love it. Um, well, yeah, well I’m sure as the, uh, Victoria Young Achiever of the year, there will be all sorts of opportunities next year. Uh, and, and, and this year to finish off, um, and we’ll be following your journey really, really closely. Sure. We’ll have to, you know, get updates from you as we, as we go along. Um, and of course, people who do follow the Young Achievement Awards we’ll see from you Wallace, because, you know, we’d love to keep the, uh, the Young Achiever of the year involved. We’re going to have to do an out judging panel for next year’s awards. And, uh, actually, it would be interesting to get your feedback after that because, you know, you were there on the other side of the fence, you’ll say, Oh, this is what the panel was doing last year when my name was getting thrown around. And so, you know, that have really interesting insight for you as well.

Wallace (32:18):

I’m looking forward to that. It’s quite an honor to be involved.

Josh (32:22):

And so you touched on earlier, people can get in contact with you directly. Is that a, how would they do that?

Wallace (32:29):

Second, send me an email via wallace.jin@gmail.com. That’s the easiest way. Otherwise you can also find me on LinkedIn.

Josh:

Thanks Wallace, we’re going to have those links that you mentioned earlier about CHASE and also your personal ones there in the show notes. So people can easily find that, get in touch with you. Wallace, Thank you for joining us today. Wallace, before we do head off, is there anything you’d like to leave the listeners with me that final message extra.

 

Wallace:

Thanks Josh! If you’re a young person out there listening to this today, don’t ever forget the tremendous potential that you have to shape and improve your community and the world around you. The young leaders of today will ultimately be the future leaders of tomorrow. And so that’s why it’s so important to think about what it is that you’re passionate about and to channel your energy into doing those things, to make our society a better place.

 

Josh (33:36):

Thank you Wallace, it’s spot on. And speaking of all those young leaders out there, the next edition of the Young Achiever Awards, will be launching before we know it. Anyone out there who is a young person, or, you know, a young person, remember you can nominate in the Young Achiever Awards, and we want to share people’s stories, Wallace, it’s exactly what you were saying. These people out there, their potential is incredible, and they’re doing great work now. And these are the inspirational stories that we want to share just like you Wallace. And we feel that it’s important to do so. So Wallace, thank you for joining us, mate. Really appreciate it. And I’m sure we’ll be in touch soon.

 

Wallace:

The pleasure’s all mine. Thank you so much, Josh and to the Awards Australia team.

 

Josh:

I  hope you enjoyed our interview. Join us each week, as we talk with ordinary Australians achieving extraordinary things. If you know someone that’s making a difference you can contact us through our Instagram page, inspirational.australians or head to our website awardsaustralia.com and you can nominate them, help spread their story, share their message. Awards Australia is a family owned Australian business, our awesome producer Annette is my mom and other podcast co-host Geoff is my dad. We proudly aim to make a difference in the lives of Australians. And we thank our corporate and not for profit partners for making our awards programs possible. Would your business like to know how to get involved, contact us now. Please subscribe to our podcast, so you won’t miss an episode. And please share this episode with your network and pay it forward. Who doesn’t like to hear a positive, good news story, but also greatly appreciate that if you review and write this series as well, we’d love to hear your thoughts until next week, stay safe and remember, together we make a difference.

Annette (35:23):

Thanks for joining us today on the inspirational Australians podcast, we hope you enjoyed listening and have been inspired by ordinary Australians, achieving extraordinary things. So it’s goodbye for another week. Remember, together we make a difference.