STATEMENT OF ACHIEVEMENT

I started at Deakin University four years ago, coming straight to university after finishing my VCE studies at high school. I was initially unsure of what career course I wanted to pursue, so I opted to study writing and literary studies as they were my favourite subjects in high school. I did my Bachelor of Arts with a double major in literary studies and creative writing, and after testing out some other units, I managed to fit in a minor in Australian Studies, where my main interest was in Indigenous Studies. I’m currently enrolled in my Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree, specialising in literary studies. My honours thesis is on the representation of women in the hit HBO television series Game of Thrones. When I find the chance for free time, I’m usually trying to fit in a few episodes of my favourite television shows, or I’m at my dance studio doing ballet. My statement of achievement will be a loosely chronological explanation of my leadership journey through my time at Deakin.

My leadership roles at Deakin started in 2017 during my second year of university. I was given the opportunity to join the Arts and Education Peer Mentor program as a mentor after being a mentee in my first year. The peer mentor program aims to set up a mentor with a group of mentees who have just started university to help them get used to university study. After a rough first year trying to fit into uni life, I felt that the chance to help others in the same position was a great idea. I will admit, that in my first trimester of uni I was seriously considering dropping out, as I felt out of my depth and unsure of my ability to raise my academic standards. Another big part of my consideration of dropping out was that I hadn’t made any friends in my first trimester, so I felt very disconnected from what I felt uni was all about: making connections with like-minded people. I’m happy to say that trimester two was great as I made a group of friends and started to improve my academics. So, when I received the email that the ARTSED (Arts and Education Faculty) peer mentor program were looking for mentors, I felt that it was only right that I try to make the process easier for new students, as it was something I myself was familiar with and I was in the position to give advice from the other side of the struggle. So, I applied and was successful in becoming a mentor.

I was excited but also very nervous as I still found the role of being a student leader daunting. I was the environment captain in high school, which involved a lot of public speaking in front of about 700 teenage girls, which I thought might have prepared me for future leadership roles. But this was different as I felt that perhaps I was not good enough to be giving advice to other students. You see, in my first trimester as a peer mentor, I had five mentees, only one of whom I met because the rest never responded to my communications. The one mentee I met was a lovely matured aged student who needed lots of help working out the online side of study. It felt great to be able to mentor her one-on-one and help her understand the way the online uni system works. But as for the other mentees’ absences, it was so disheartening as I had already planned out all the insider knowledge they needed to know to help them get the best out of uni, but it also made me feel that I was doing the mentor role wrong. Alternatively, this helped me build my resilience in the leadership role, as I learnt that not everyone was going to be responsive to the program. I stuck with the program for my third year (trimester two didn’t receive enough mentees to give me a mentor role) and I had a great group of mentees in trimester one (2018) who were all studying the same course I was doing, albeit they were in their first year and I was in my last. I felt fulfilled in my role as a mentor when my mentee group became friends and started to stick together during classes (Please refer to evidence no. 1 & 2 for statement from two of the said students). I felt as if I had achieved what I was seeking to achieve—to make the students feel comfortable in a new education environment and are able to fully embrace their journey through university. This was a great change from my previous year in the program and it made me glad I stuck with it. My role in the peer mentor program also opened pathways for me to start more leadership roles at the university.

During my second year (2017), I was telling my classmate about my disheartenment at my first time mentoring in the ARTSED program. They told me they worked for a non-for-profit organisation that ran through Deakin called AIME, and they were looking for mentors. AIME works with local Indigenous Australian high school students to promote success, identity and pride within these students as the ongoing effects of colonisation only see a small percentage of Indigenous students graduate high school. AIME is all about creating equal opportunities and positivity for these students so they have the confidence and abilities to achieve whatever they want to achieve. I applied for the program as I was eager to try my hand at a new mentoring role after the lack of success with my first peer mentoring group. I successfully got the role of a mentor, which involved me attending program days where the students from 14 schools in the Geelong region come to Deakin Waurn Ponds to do a day of confidence building activities; and visiting schools for tutor squad sessions where I would tutor year 11 and 12 students in whatever homework they would bring. I found AIME daunting at first as it can be quite intimidating trying to mentor high schoolers (maybe I wasn’t over the traumas of high school!), but I eventually built great relationships with the students which I still have today. I’m still a mentor in the AIME program (this is my third year!), and I was privileged enough to be awarded the Mentor of the Year award for the Deakin Victoria program in 2018. I was taken to Sydney to spend a week at the annual AIME staff event, AIME Institute, where we spent four days doing character building activities, and activities addressing issues like environmental disasters, lack of support for mental health and prejudice views of the Indigenous community. That trip was a key moment in my leadership journey and my personal journey as I was struggling a lot with my then undiagnosed anxiety. I truly believed that I could not muster the courage to go to Sydney and receive my award because my anxiety was so bad at the time, but I went, and I honestly had the best time of my life. I met other mentors and AIME staff who were amazing and inspirational, and I really felt like my work was truly worth something and that I was meant to be a leader. I always questioned my worth as a mentor, wondering if I was doing any good or changing any lives, but being given that award erased all doubt I had in myself and only strengthen my passion for mentoring. AIME has been my passion since I started mentoring with them and has shown me that leadership and mentoring is something that gives me a lot of joy and fulfillment. It has also made me appreciate the way mentoring has changed my life and helped me overcome personal issues in a way I didn’t think was possible (Please refer to evidence no. 3 for statement from AIME staff member).

Another leadership program I became involved with was Deakin led Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS). PASS sessions involve a PASS leader running an hour long study session for students enrolled in selected first year units to help them understand the unit content better and ultimately give them more confidence in their studies. I became a PASS leader in 2017 after receiving an email asking me to apply due to my previous experience as a peer mentor. I applied as I was excited to do more leadership programs and share my love for my chosen PASS unit in Australian studies. My first few sessions were shaky as I had to balance the fine line between helping the students to be able to learn themselves, and accidently teaching them. I continued with PASS for three trimesters and I really enjoyed being able to interact with a diverse range of students and help them to fall in love with the units the way I did. I also had the ability to promote other mentoring programs to students to help them get the most out of their time at university, even convincing my peer mentor group who I previously mentioned to attend my PASS class for one of their children’s literature units. PASS was also a favourite mentoring program of mine as I enjoyed creating the content of the session and seeing how the students would engage each time. Great moments for me were when the students started to teach other and help each other, taking the pressure off myself to not accidentally teach them, and encouraging them to engage and learn from each other. PASS was my hardest mentoring role, as it took a lot of time and effort to plan the sessions but also to engage with students who may not have always been at PASS for the right reasons. PASS was a crucial factor in strengthening my confidence in both my mentoring role and my studies as I had to be impartial but also correct in the content I was working with (Please refer to evidence no. 4 for statement from PASS staff member).

My previous mentoring roles also led me to join the Success Coach program at Deakin. The Success Coach program is tailor-made for first-time Deakin Cloud students to help them engage with study and understand the online system of learning. This is done through weekly emails sent by a Success Coach to a group of up to 50-60 cloud students. Being a Success Coach was a crucial point in my mentoring journey as I struggled to engage with students via email. It didn’t feel personal or genuine coming from years of face-to-face mentoring. But I overcame this and learnt to be observant of other ways I can connect to online students. One being to just strike up general conversation with them. I made some great connections, with one student just finishing up an eight-year long career as a professional ballerina in Europe, and another student coming back to study after a 40 year hiatus. Being a Success Coach taught me to be comfortable in my communication skills, but also made me must work harder to engage students which I think is extremely important in the case of isolated online students (Please refer to evidence no. 5 for statement from a Success Coach Program staff member).

My mentoring journey features many roles, all equally different from the other. Throughout my time mentoring, I’ve learnt not only how to engage with other students and help them in various areas, but also to be confident in my abilities and capabilities. Mentoring is easily my biggest passion, and even though I’m studying in a completely different area, I know in my heart that being a leader and a mentor is what I’m meant to be doing and it’s what I’ll continue doing for the rest of my life. It fills me with pride and happiness to help others and all these roles are just beginnings in what I think will be a long journey.