Sacred Heart College in Hobart has been announced winner of the 2024 SunSafe Student Ambassador Program competition, with Lucas Heights Community School in Sydney and St Paul’s College Walla Walla in the Riverina announced as joint runners-up.

The SunSafe Student Ambassador Program involved five sun safety and melanoma awareness sessions that were run across NSW, WA and TAS throughout August and September. 32 high schools participated.

Building upon their learnings at the day-long workshops, students were asked to share the messaging with their peers in whatever creative form they chose, the overall goal being to convince their peers to embrace sun safe behaviours.

Sacred Heart College in Hobart won first place for its creative and engaging submission with clear potential for a lasting impact, and will receive funding to go towards implementation of some of its innovative sun safety initiatives. Both runner-up schools have also been awarded funding to be spent on sun safe initiatives.

‘Our judging panel was blown away by the creativity and passion displayed in all entries,’ said Matthew Browne, CEO of Melanoma Institute Australia.

‘Sacred Heart’s submission stood out due to its holistic approach to sun safety, and their clear plan for and dedication towards changing behaviours in terms of sun safety and melanoma prevention at their school. Stella, Elsie and Jarvis – the three students who attended MIA’s SunSafe Student Ambassador Program in Hobart and led the charge with this contest – should be incredibly proud of their impactful work.’

Sacred Heart College’s winning submission included a long list of behaviour-changing and educational sun safety initiatives including: a school audit to measure sun safety within the school; an educational and engaging school assembly; creating a new school SunSafe guideline for students and staff to follow; engaging an architect to create plans for a new outdoor shade structure; providing sunscreen stations around the school; and posters with sun safe rules displayed around the school.

‘The Sacred Heart College community is very proud of the efforts of our SunSafe Student Ambassadors, Stella Kydas, Jarvis Milne and Elsie Golding,’ said Sacred Heart College Deputy Principal, Nicholas Lahey. ‘We are very grateful to Melanoma Institute Australia for the opportunity for students to participate in the program, and I urge all schools to register and participate in this crucial training for young people.’

St Paul’s College’s submission included: sun safe posters designed and displayed around the school; designing new sun safe hats and long sleeved PE uniform; sun safe presentation to their peers; and throwing a melanoma awareness week at their school which involved quizzes and prizes for sun safe behaviour.

Lucas Heights Community School’s submission included: a new UV meter installed in the school; daily UV announcements; and new bucket hats and caps for teaching staff.

‘Having a UV meter at Lucas Heights Community School offers significant benefits to our students, fostering health awareness and environmental understanding,’ said Julie Adams, principal of Lucas Heights Community School. ‘It emphasises the importance of sun protection in daily life, providing early education about UV exposure and promoting lifelong habits that reduce the risk of skin cancer and other sun-related health issues.’

Australia has the highest melanoma rates in the world. One person is diagnosed with melanoma every 30 minutes and one person dies from the disease every 6 hours. It is the most common cancer affecting 20–39-year-old Australians.

The SunSafe Student Ambassador Program will return in 2025 and high schools can register their interest here.