News

Aquinas College changed the entire trajectory of my life. Sounds drastic but let me explain: I moved from Mildura to Adelaide to study Speech Pathology at the beginning of 2019, I was young, slightly naive and couldn’t wait to learn and grow with independence. I envisioned living in Adelaide and never leaving. I figured country life wasn’t for me anymore but I was wrong.

As COVID-19 limited overseas travel, I moved back to Mildura as a new-graduate Speech Pathologist in 2023, keen to get the RWAV relocation grant for moving to a regional area so I could do a European summer with my friends. However, life had other plans for me. I fell in love with living and working regionally. I also met my partner and bought a house in Mildura in that same year, but work played a very large role in my decision to build a life in Mildura. I work with paediatrics in a Community Health setting, so see anything and everything to do with children in a single afternoon. Some days I wonder if I even provided any intervention at all, because sometimes I’m just there to make little people feel seen. I truly love what I do and spending time connecting with children and being silly will always be my favourite part of my job. Supporting communication, whatever that looks like for a child, is the highlight of every day for me. Working regionally has opened so many doors: presenting at the SARRAH conference, working in brains trusts creating resources for children waiting on speech pathology wait lists across Australia and connecting with clinicians experiencing the same issues I do regarding workforce shortages, the NDIS, I could go on.

Aquinas was the place where I met friends for life. There are so many people whom I still speak to almost every day: Ella Kain (Penola), Jordan Tucker (Mount Gambier), Elizabeth Evans (Tumby Bay), Caroline Joyce (Tamworth), Zahra Morrish (Mildura), Ruby Yates (Port Augusta), Ellie Gould (Lucindale). These people, along with many others shaped me into the assertive, passionate and fun person that I am today. I’m forever grateful that I walked through those front gates as a Fresher, knowing a total of 5 people with so many new and exciting opportunities ahead of me. They say that college will always be the good old days, but I truly believe that college is just the beginning, you meet the people that will be alongside you for all the better days to come. The only downside is that the Holy Grail brings tears to my eyes now. But go Wolves!