Kim Harding awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia

A huge congratulations to our co-founder, Kim Harding, newly minted OAM for service to the community through charitable organisations. Her work at the Harding Miller Education Foundation is phenomenal and sits amongst her other philanthropic interests including marine conservation, homelessness, the prevention of domestic violence and the arts.  

At the Harding Miller Education Foundation big hearts and hard work are the uniform, and Kim leads by example. Her energy is endless. Her passion and her compassion are unrivalled. She aims big and loves large and the foundation’s achievements are due to this incredible combination of traits being drawn together with a great focus on the achievement of education equity for Australian girls. Her passion and leadership have inspired other donors to contribute and hundreds of volunteers to work with us.   

This significant recognition through the award of Medal of the Order of Australia coincides with the Foundation awarding our thousandth scholarship. That means that we have distributed more than $20,000,000 of scholarships to high-potential Australian girls who don’t currently have the resources that they need to achieve their full potential.   

Each scholarship is a multi-layered four-year support system that can be personalised to meet the individual needs of each recipient. The scholarship includes personal tutoring, a high-quality laptop, mobile data, remote IT helpdesk support, study skills training, online homework help, access to books and book vouchers, and a pre-paid expense card to cover education expenses. The scholarship recipients also have access to a range of online and in-person experience to broaden their view of their career prospects and give them the knowledge and confidence that they need to achieve those careers. We call this our enrichment program, and we partner with Australian universities, businesses, and inspiring individuals to deliver a broad and exciting range of options for the students each year. Every scholarship recipient is also partnered with a personal coach who assists them to navigate the scholarship opportunities and supports them to make the most of their educational opportunities in and out of school.  

The long-term payoff of the investment of the founders as well as our other donors, volunteers and supporters is not yet visible but as the number of graduating classes grows so do the stories of the life-changing impact. A thousand scholarships means a thousand stories… so far.   

Kim, with her co-founder Irene, have directly funded the administration and operational costs of the foundation since its inception in 2015. In addition, they have also personally supported more than 600 scholarships across the eight years. 

Kim received the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the 2023 King’s Birthday Honours List.