Environmental Engineering Graduate Treks to Restore Sight
PhD student Nadia Zakrzewski has just journeyed for 26 hrs straight to help raise funds for an event called Coast Trek.
Coast Trek is run by the Wild Women on Top organisation, which this year had a total of 220 volunteers and was successful in raising just over $2.5 million for the Fred Hollows Foundation.
Nadia got involved with Coast Trek after being contacted by Ruth Hollows, Fred Hollows' daughter, who Nadia had been school friends with.
"To know that 25$ is enough to give someone back their vision, that's amazing and it's something that just really meant a lot to me," Nadia said.
Nadia and Ruth's team of four trekked 100km from Palm Beach to Coogee in
the pouring rain starting from 6am and finishing at 8am the following morning
and raised almost $6,000 just on their own.
Coast Trek has been an annual event since 2009 and has had many notable participants such as current Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Olympic Gold Medallist Susie O'Neill.
Nadia completed a combined Bachelor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at The University of Newcastle last year.
Her PhD is titled 'Numerical Analysis of Offshore Foundations' and is in the field of Civil Geotechnical Engineering.
"I do eventually want to end up doing aid work and I'm looking at getting involved with Engineers Without Borders.
"I like to give back to the community, I've done a couple of half marathons raising money for various charities," Nadia said.
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The University of Newcastle acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands within our footprint areas: Awabakal, Darkinjung, Biripai, Worimi, Wonnarua, and Eora Nations. We also pay respect to the wisdom of our Elders past and present.