Former CVSA Secretary Mr. Stanley Trief Marches out of UC with Flying Colours

Stanley Trief arrived in Canberra (with his wife and two children) in January 2010 to pursue a Master of International Customs Law and Administration at the Centre for Customs and Excise Studies (CCES), University of Canberra (UC). He walked out of UC in September 2011 with flying colours – not only having achieved this dream, but also two other awards: a Prime Minister’s Pacific-Australia Award and UC’s Dean’s Award of Academic Excellence from the Faculty of Law.

Stanley Trief began working at the Vanuatu Department of Customs and Inland Revenue in 2002 as a Senior Officer in Information Technology Services. In 2003 Stanley completed a Bachelor of Science, with a major in Computer Science, from the University of Waikato, New Zealand. In 2005 Stanley was appointed Manager, Information Technology Services at Customs. Stanley has held this position for over five years and in 2010 was encouraged to move to Australia and complete a Masters degree from the UC.

The Australian Prime Minister’s Award Stanley received is a series of awards presented to leaders, or potential leaders who are living throughout the Pacific, Papua New Guinea and East Timor. The award has provided Stanley with a work placement opportunity at the Centre for Customs and Excise Studies. It was a great opportunity for Stanley to work alongside his own lecturers and further build on his Customs knowledge gained while studying.

Stanley returned to Port Vila and back to his organisation – the Department of Customs – in July 2011. After only seven weeks with the Department’s Post Clearance Audit Section, he was further transferred to the Customs Border Control and Enforcement Section as Manager CBCES after returning from Canberra recently for his graduation. He hopes to return to UC someday in the future to complete a PhD.

While in Canberra, amid all these responsibilities and achievements, Stanley also served as the Canberra Vanuatu Students Association (CVSA) Secretary from 2010-2011, and was instrumental in establishing CVSA’s website/blog, which is accessible at:

http://canberra-vanuatustudents.blogspot.com/.

CVSA warmly congratulates Stanley for these great achievements – for him, for his family and for Vanuatu – and wishes him much success as he takes up his new responsibilities within the Government of Vanuatu.