With chins held high and smiles on their faces, graduates from Federation University’s Berwick and Gippsland campuses graced the halls and stages of Bunjil Place, but the moment was even sweeter for Elizabeth Zavros.
The culmination of 12 years of schooling reached a climactic end on Wednesday 16 October, as the journey to becoming a maternal and child health nurse came to a close, Elizabeth delivered a riveting speech to the audience, one that spoke of resilience, perseverance and triumph.
“I still feel like I have to pinch myself that I actually got here,” Elizabeth said.
“But I was nervous, I don’t think anyone really enjoys public speaking, but getting up there and delivering that speech, made me reflect on the last 12 years or so of my life.
“To get to that moment it was like, tying it all together rather beautifully, it was the last time I was going to be doing that, and I don’t think I’m going to study again, so I really kept those [thoughts] at the back of my mind.”
Elizabeth completed a Graduate Diploma of Health (Child and Family Health Nursing) after training and working as a nurse and midwife; beforehand, she was motivated to enrol in the course while recovering from a preventative double mastectomy after discovering she had a BRCA2 gene mutation.
When she first began her studies in 2013, it was as a single mum, and after dropping out of high school in Year 11, “people thought I was pretty crazy”.
“‘Uni is really hard’, I remember being told that many a time, that it’s really tough, and that I have two little girls and that I’m a single mum, they asked, ‘do you really think you should be doing this?’
“And I did, I got through three years without failing anything, I did my nursing grad year after, but I’ve always wanted to do midwifery and maternal and child health, that was always the goal.”
After applying to the midwifery course, Elizabeth met her current husband, and also with two daughters meant a “demanding” few years from her studies to her everyday life.
Nevertheless, she pushed through, soon after working as a midwife for five years before she was diagnosed; but it was then, a wave of feelings and realisation, the determined thought of working towards a greater good when Elizabeth decided to apply for her course.
The previous year was nothing short of difficult, with her coming out of her surgery at the beginning of 2023, and with classes beginning in March with 330 hours of placement on top of her part-time role as a midwife and nurse.
“Then, in the middle of last year, my father passed away, it was a lot, it was a tricky year,” she said.
“Dealing with the mastectomy, and the ongoing procedures, but I got there in the end, I just had to take one step at a time.
“If you think about it and you stand back and go, ‘oh my God, I’ve got to do three degrees, there’s no way I’m going to be able to do this’.
“But you’ve just to take it one step at a time and I couldn’t have done it without the support of my family, close friends, and my children as well.”
For Elizabeth, it was all about taking it slow, and through the support of her loved ones, having the confidence in herself to achieve what she has always wanted to become.
“My children are my number one priority, hence why I went into midwifery and maternal and child health,” she said.
“I look at my children and think, I want to provide them with a great life, and I want to be able to show them what you can do as well.
“It’s all about going step by step, one week at a time, one day at a time, being slow and pacing yourself, and you just have to think about what your goal is and really hold on tight and make sure you follow through.
“Don’t listen to that self-doubt, and I didn’t think I would ever say how much I absolutely love a job, but it’s just a job for me – it’s about holding on to that dream and to keep on going,” she said.
