Meet our Women in STEMM

This video shows KERRY PHILLIPS sitting in the foreground on a tarmac with a plane in the background. There are shots of Kerry on the tarmac, working with teammates, and inside the cockpit, and shots of classrooms, and the Point Cook runway.

Duration: 2:03

Subtitle: Kerry - Associate Degree in Aviation (Professional Pilots), Bachelor of Applied Science (Aviation)/Bachelor of Business (Management)

Audio: Soft piano music plays.

Kerry speaks:

I've always loved planes and flying as a passenger, as a pilot. When I was really, really little, I would always want to do everything on a plan, go to every section and walk up and down. Even on short flights, if I didn't get to go to the toilet, even if I needed to or not, I would get really cranky and throw a little bit of a tantrum.

My family wasn't terribly supportive. It wasn't something that I thought I could get into. I actually started studying a double degree in physiotherapy and sports science in Perth. I did that for four years where I just decided I hated it, and I got the courage to leave. I liked those subjects when I was in high school; it just wasn't something that I could see myself having a career at. 

Then realized that I wanted to make aviation my career. I started studying a double degree in aviation business management at RMIT, and now I've started flight training. I love it so much more. My GPA has tripled, or almost tripled since physiotherapy. I'm not any smarter. I just love what I'm doing so much more. I'm just generally happy. And so everything is easier. I would advise to really do what you're happy with because it just makes it better.

You'll have one day in the city most semesters, so you still get to live the normal university life and you get to wear civilian clothes, but the rest of the time you'll be at Point Cook, so you actually get to wear the uniform, come on base, have base pass, that kind of thing. So we get the best of both worlds. 

You become very, very familiar and friendly with your cohort people in your years, even the staff there. So everyone becomes kind of a family, so becomes a community. 

Usually everyone's favourite is their first solo. I was so terrified in my first solo, I just wanted to learn the plane and be safe and realize I could do it. My favourite flight was actually my second solo, so when I got to do a few labs and I really had the realization, oh, I can actually fly a plane. This is something I'm doing and I'm doing it well and multiple times. It's not something I fluked once.

What's next for me is to work towards getting my commercial and instrument rating, so that I can be a commercial pilot with an airline.

[Closing credits]

Title: What’s next… 

Visual: RMIT University logo

Text:

www.rmit.edu.au/school-lever

CRICOS provider number: 00122A

Registered Training Organisation number 3046