Thanks useful information: 
this starts off dark, but please persist, it get very positive at the end
10 years ago yesterday our eldest son, having moved to the US for work, was filling in a day in Los Angeles on his way home to Melbourne for xmas, when he was hit and killed by a DUI driver.
He'd done a double degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Melbourne University, on a full scholarship having achieved an ENTER score of 99.45 attending a small country high school. A full scholarship to Melb Uni meant no Hecs, which they valued then at $65,000. but for students from the bush accomodation costs were much more immediate issue. we were able to meet the costs but many wouldn't be able to
He'd been on the Dean's Honours List of at least 1 of those faculties in each semester of his 5 years. I didn't even know we had a Dean's honour's List when I was at Uni.
At High School he'd loved his basketball, but it wasn't cool to be clever so he didn't want to try out for the Town's team as he didn't want to be not picked.
When he went to Uni he stayed at Whitley College, one of the residential colleges affiliated with Melb Uni. It was the smallest college and had a real family feel (only 92 students) and it drew him out, and showed him it was cool to be clever. This positivity lead him to try out for the Melb Uni basketball team and he ended up playing Big V Div2, a competition higher than the local Seymour team.
He was signed to a contract by IBM a year before he graduated, and after working for them for a while moved to Reflex, arguably the world's pre-eminent speed camera company, based in South Melbourne.
Oh, and while studying for his degrees (which he got with 1st class honours) he coached refugees in IT through an aid agency each Saturday.
It was while he was at Reflex he was head hunted by Google, went through their very lengthy and stringent assessment processes, but when they offered him a position he turned them down. He had issues with a number of ethical issues he disagreed with Google over. He accepted a position in Chicago instead.
When we lost him we couldn't let his achievements just slide past so we established a scholarship at Melbourne Uni (Initially at Whitley, but when that closed it was moved to the Melbourne University Scholarship Board to administer).
When it moved to the Scholarship Board an amount of $320,000 transferred from the Whitley account. They'd been able to pay for the scholarship out of the yearly returns so th capital had been preserved
The James Rapley Memorial Scholarship is "to contribute to the residential costs, at any of the 5 smallest residential colleges, for a Rural Student studying Engineering or Science who may not otherwise be able to afford to do so". The small college was important to us as it really helped bring James' out
In 2021, a person, that the University said wanted to remain anonymous, donated an amount of $100,000 to the account. This means the value of the scholarship is approx 13,000 each year
bear with me I'm almost to the WOW point.
A little while after he was killed his friend from Reflex, Alex Janick, developed a camera that could detect people on their mobile phones when driving (something witnesses suggested the driver who killed James was doing). Reflex wasn't interested in it so Alex went out on his own. In the 1st press release after the NSW govt announced they were adopting it Alex credited the idea to the loss of James.
Of course the mobile phone traffic camera is now widely adopted, and I believe being adapted to also sense people not wearing seatbelts. I know some people sook about being caught by these cameras, but they are SAVING LIVES!!.
We had a dinner last night with James's Uni friends with everyone, (except 1 who is in Europe at the moment) of the "old gang" their.
Of course Alex was there too.
During a speech I mentioned the anonymous donation and how amazing it was.
Afterwards Alex came up to me and said he hoped we weren't embarrassed but he'd donated the $100,000 and he hadn't intended that we wouldn't know who the donor was. He hoped we didn't mind.
HOPED WE DIDN"T MIND!!!. It's been 24 hours and my mind is still blown. He sold some shares in his company to donate $100,000. How many young blokes, in their 30's would think to do that. Clearly I'm not speechless 'coz I've just typed all this but his generosity is absolutely amazing.
At this time of year I think that's a pretty good news story
Thanks Alex.
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