By Marcus Uhe
While many students across the state anxiously awoke to discover their ATAR on Thursday, some students enrolled at Berwick’s Federation University had a less stressful morning.
Federation University launched its early offers program earlier this year to help take the pressure off secondary school students who were already struggling with finishing their studies and making decisions about their future during a global pandemic.
The University has made conditional offers for programs at Berwick to 190 applicants.
One beneficiary of the project was Hampton Park’s Kayley Day from St John’s Regional College in Dandenong.
Ms Day was offered a place in a community and human services degree, a decision inspired by working in a pharmacy.
“I work in the industry already and I like helping people,” Ms Day said. “I feel like that’s an area that’s really underrepresented at the moment, especially during Covid-19.
“I like seeing all the people that need help, and needing help with medications.
“Even down to saying hello to customers, it makes their day.”
Year 12 is hard enough as it is but for the graduating class of 2021, like their predecessors last year, students have had to navigate home-schooling.
St John’s was fortunate to be able to hold their formal, graduation and valedictory ceremonies in-between lockdowns, but couldn’t escape the dreaded zoom sessions as the pandemic tightened its grip.
For Ms Day, who describes herself as more of a ‘hands-on’ learner, she said that it was a daunting experience but will strengthen her in the long run.
“It can be very scary and I was bit scared for a while, because I didn’t know what was going to happen. But we pushed through, showed resilience and I’m very proud of the whole cohort this year.”
“I had a whiteboard where I could write all my upcoming assessments and I had motivation posters up on it. There was a lot of personal stuff to make me feel better
“(I was most proud of) My resilience to get through. It’s made me more open minded to what can happen later in life and how people struggle in different ways, and also to what I want to do in the future.”
She said that she’s excited to study at a local university with a small, tight-knit community.
“They seem so friendly and because it’s a smaller area, they know everyone.
“When I went for a walk-through the other day, there was a lady at the uni who remembered who I was from an open day.”
