Course Spotlight: Clemente Australia Setting Up For Success in 2026
You may be familiar with Clemente's 30+ programs across the United States, but did you know that Clemente also has a long and rich history in Australia?
It began in 2003, when Clemente founder Earl Shorris visited the country and inspired the program's first class in East Sydney. Today, Australian Catholic University and its community partners offer the program at numerous sites across the continent. In the more than two decades since, many students have gone on to further study and many more have carried the skills and perspectives gained in the program into their lives and communities.
Read on for the latest from Clemente partner Jennifer Tredinnick (ACU Manager of Community Engaged Outreach) on how Clemente Australia is setting up for a remarkable 2026.
Partnership teams in each of our seven campus and community placed Clemente programs, including program coordinators, community partners, ACU lecturers, academic skills/literacies advisors, volunteer learning partners and university student peers, are working to foster vibrant, collaborative learning communities.
Earl Shorris’ vision that all people – regardless of status or wealth – have access to humanities education, continues to guide Clemente in Australia.
Returning to study can be daunting for people who have experienced significant barriers in their lives. Yet, our Clemente students dive courageously into their university studies. Respectful and relational support from our collaborative learning communities, nurtures students’ confidence, capabilities, and self-belief to succeed - and with gentle and persistent encouragement, graduate with a Certificate of Liberal Arts
What We Are studying
Core to the Clemente curriculum is first year ACU Bachelor of Arts units. Clemente students undertake learning and assessment alongside their mainstream university student colleagues. In 2026, our units focus on the disciplines of history, philosophy and literature, exploring scandals and deception across time, global history and what it means to be human. Additionally, our students incarcerated, undertaking our unique prison outreach program, are tackling International Relations (Politics) in their summer semester studies.
Community, Connection, and Engagement through Poetry.
Our Clemente Fitzroy program in Melbourne (home of the Australian Open), plays a special role in nurturing a culture of community, connection, and engagement across our Clemente settings. It hosts a range of extra-curricular activities, including a short poetry workshop series that has sparked curiosity, creativity, and meaningful engagement among students. In this online workshop series, participants are invited to read poems aloud, encouraging them to discover their reading voice, including those who were initially too shy to speak when the program began. One student, who continues to write poetry, reflected on reading Roethke’s villanelle The Waking, sharing that it "spoke deeply to her life" and has become "her favourite poem of all time."
To learn more about Clemente Australia, check out the website and most recent publications, “Critical Hope” (Journal of Academic Language and Learning, 2025) and Lifelong Learning in Adult Education (Springer, 2025).
