More than 340 students took to the stage and had their final moments at Federation University Berwick Campus’s graduation ceremony, with milestones celebrated and diplomas held close.
Among these students is Isha, who delivered a strong speech during the ceremony on Wednesday, 26 March, where she touched on her journey so far and what life has in store for her and her peers.
Isha graduated with a Bachelor of Information Technology after she realised the value of devices in people’s everyday lives during the pandemic.
After letting a deep breath go, she said that she’s “trying to believe that I’ve done it”.
“Like, all of those years, how I went through them and just the feeling of disbelief and excitement, and of course, that tinge of nervousness too,” she said.
Touching on her choice of degree, she said that from what she experienced, technology played a big role in current society and that it was “helping people”.
“People were using it every day, especially since you had to stay home; so I was like, okay, if I want to make an impact in the world, technology was in the middle of that,” she said.
What appealed to Isha the most was the flexibility of the degree, from tackling computer-based roles, to information management, infrastructure and more.
“You get to know about a lot of sectors because it’s not just IT in health or in education, it’s everywhere,” she said.
One of the bigger impacts for her was being a woman in STEM, a male-dominated field, where Isha looks to find her success.
She recalled the first years of her university days when she walked into a class and saw only three other women.
While it was a shock, she remains gleeful to be one of many to be representing women in her field.
“When I first thought about IT, I thought it was all about coding; that was my first impression,” Isha said.
“But the thing I like about women in STEM is that we’re able to utilise all of our skills in (the broader) IT, rather than just thinking about it as just coding.
“You can build anything from IT, it can be an organisation even; right now I’m doing an analysis role, so not much coding, but the impact is the same.”
Isha, in light of her studies, praised the university’s co-op model in enabling her, and many other students to gain hands-on experience while still undertaking their studies.
Talking about said hands-on experience, she also said that it gave her the “opportunity to observe recent industry trends and see the results of my hard work in front of my eyes”.
“That made me clear about what I want to pursue in the next five years in the education or technology industries and also get a taste of work-life balance,” she said.
As for Federation’s vice-chancellor, Duncan Bentley, he was ecstatic to be able to deliver another riveting ceremony; the sight of students taking on a new journey was something he said he’d never grow tired of.
“It’s such a fantastic experience and one of the wonderful things is all these co-operative programs we’re delivering with employers mean we’re seeing graduates come out with unique skill capabilities,” he said.
