Legal doors open for Western Sydney uni student
GROWING up in Springwood, 72km west of the Sydney CBD, Daniel Dreves never dreamt he would sit in on high-stakes corporate negotiations, attend court hearings and rub shoulders with the city’s legal elite in his very first year at the Western Sydney University.
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GROWING up in Springwood, 72km west of the Sydney CBD, Daniel Dreves never dreamt he would sit in on high-stakes corporate negotiations, attend court hearings and rub shoulders with the city’s legal elite in his very first year at the Western Sydney University.
But via the Go West Mentorship, the 19-year-old business and law student has already found himself learning from Sydney’s top litigators.
“I haven’t been to the city much or really had much contact with big business,” he said.
“It has been eye-opening to be part of that world and to work with such successful people who had given up their time to help me.”
Go West Mentorship is a partnership between The Daily Telegraph, Western Sydney University and TAFE NSW designed to give students from Greater Sydney the best chance to get ahead.
It introduces ambitious, talented students to leaders in fields such as business, law enforcement, industrial design, politics, medicine, sports, tourism and policy to gain insights and advice on landing a job after graduation — something just over 62 per cent of western Sydney students achieved, according to the latest figures,
Mr Dreves was one of more than 40 inaugural mentorship recipients last year.
He was assigned to Rebekah Giles, a partner at Kennedys Law and founding Go West Mentor.
Ms Giles said joining the program was a “no brainer”.
As the first in her family to attend university, she said the mentors who invested time in her as a young law student had proved critical to her success.
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“Work experience is the best type of mentoring you can give someone because law is so vast,” she said.
Mr Dreves said the program was so important for him without a family background an industry where it is all about “who you know”.
The Daily Telegraph editor Chris Dore said the Go West Mentorship program was designed to give young graduates better prospects.
“Not everyone goes to university with established networks and the right connections to lead them on to career success,” he said.
“We are driven to help level the playing field.”