For the past several years, HEIA(Q) has partnered with NESLI—the National Excellence in School Leadership Initiative—and encouraged home economics teachers to apply for the NESLI awards. NESLI has been very supportive in the partnership and has created special awards available only to home economics teachers and home economics middle leaders. In 2019 the partnership shifted to a national level with HEIA partnering with NESLI, rather than with HEIA(Q) only, and thus the awards are now made available to home economics teachers across Australia.

In 2019, NESLI expanded its program options, offering scholarships for two of their programs:

• Advanced Leadership Program, for those wanting to transition to senior leadership
• Middle Leaders Program, aimed at those seeking middle-leadership opportunities.

Between the two programs, NESLI awarded nine scholarships to HEIA members across Australia: one full scholarship (valued at $4609) and four partial scholarships (valued at $2000 each) for the Advanced Leadership Program; and one full scholarship (valued at $3069) and three partial scholarships (valued at $1500 each) for the Middle Leaders Program.

Three of the nine scholarship winners were from Queensland, including the recipient of the full Advanced Leadership Program scholarship. HEIA(Q) is proud to have the efforts of its members acknowledged in this way. The successful Queensland candidates were announced, introduced and celebrated at the HEIA(Q) 2019 state conference. They were:

• Full Scholarship, Advanced Leadership Program:
  Nikki Boswell, Hervey Bay State High School
• Partial Scholarships, Advanced Leadership Program:
  Ngaire Mayo, Woodcrest State College, Springfield
  Danielle Gibson, Coolum Beach Christian College (unfortunately, Danielle could not attend the conference).

The significant contingent from HEIA(NT) attending the conference celebrated the award their colleague Tina Sketchley (from Darwin State High School) received—a partial scholarship for the Middle Leaders Program.

Thank you to NESLI for continuing to provide opportunities for powerful and effective leadership professional development opportunities for HEIA women members. Congratulations to all scholarship winners. We trust you will find participating in the NESLI programs valuable and look forward to hearing about how the opportunities have supported your leadership journeys.