Your impact starts here

RMIT prides itself for providing applied learning to students.

So my role in the partnerships team is to really build that connections with industry and students to provide those challenges that are applicable in the real world learning.

So when the students come out of the university, they are future ready.

Well, collaboration is really a big part of our culture here at RMIT, we work collaboratively across different colleges, disciplines and schools.

You know, from STEM College to College of Business Law to vocational education and design and social context, it is very important for us to support each other.

So that spirit of collaboration and sharing ideas, working together, is really important to compile all those visions together for the benefit of our students.

When I face a challenging time in my personal life, I was met with understanding and trust.

Having the flexibility to manage my work in a way that supported my wellbeing just made a huge difference.

And it reminded me that here at RMIT, people truly come first.

I actually started as a consultant, RMIT all the way back in 2016.

And I think for me, in consulting, I worked across a number of different industries.

And higher education and the, my brand had such a strong, purpose about it, about everyone you spoke to was really thinking about student first.

How do we make the student experience better?

How do we make sure that we're driving really good student outcomes,

So what we know is everyone wants to test and learn with new shiny AI tools.

And as a university, we absolutely want to support that.

One of the things I'm really proud of is the AI governance framework and responsible AI procedures that we've implemented across the university to enable that innovation

in a really safe and scalable way.

So I really get my energy from my team.

We think it's really important to get to know the whole person.

We bring in photos each week of what's happened on the weekend.

Kids, cats and dogs.

Probably the most engaging site for our RMIT.

We deliberately always building collaborative sessions where we do brainstorming, problem solving together.

And that's absolutely where I get my driving, my energy from

My team worked on a Gen AI virtual assistant for our campus platform used by our students for enrollments providing better access to internal RMIT resources, it's generally enthusiasm from from above, right?

They want to see us try things.

They want to see us push the line back rather than, you know, hold the status quo. Getting that prompt to say, why don't you try something different?

Doesn't matter if it doesn't work right, give it a bash.

It makes a big difference.

It's very encouraging.

It's always family first.

Look after the kids where you need to, which makes a massive difference for us.

We have three now.

We have special needs in the family as well.

So that's a really critical thing for me to be able to, you know, attend special appointments,

And the fact that I don't have to stress about folding that in with my work life makes a huge difference.

The thing I love about RMIT is I describe it a bit like a choose your own adventure.

So some universities, it's all about the research that you do and where you publish

But the thing about RMIT is it's big enough and there's so many opportunities that you can kind of choose what you want to specialise in.

It's one of the things that really attracted me here is that the leaders do know who you are.

They want to hear from you, but then they also support you to do them.

They put you at the forefront of bringing that idea to life.

Marketing technologies is such an emerging space, and the vast majority of businesses have critical skills gaps.

Because this is such a new topic, I'm providing my students to one of the first formal educations in this space in the world, as well as direct access to current industry experts and leaders.

And so through that, we are preparing them to not only work in this space, but actually be the leaders in it,

So, I started here in 2004.

I was only meant to be here for two weeks, and now it's almost 21 years later.

For me, what is getting me out of bed every morning is to go into the office and see my colleagues.

The fact is that we all work towards a common goal, which is, ensuring the best for, the university and best for the students.

One of the things, I loved about my various roles in the university is that we're exposed to so many different types of technology and tools.

I now, a master in Adobe Creative Cloud.

Never thought I could actually use it.

And, there's been so many opportunities to grow and develop skills.

Every single job I've had, I've felt that I could add value and I felt supported.

It's probably the reason why I've stayed here for so long.

So the cool thing about being an engineer, and a biomedical engineer full stop, we're able to use technology advances to really treat and help the human body and needs of the community around us.

We're able to bring in community partners and students and really give them the same mindset of, you know, how do we use our our skills and expertise for good?

Industry comes to us with their problems.

Because we have solutions, we have the technology.

So I've been part of some really exciting stuff, whether it's, working with the Australian Stroke Alliance to miniaturised CT scanning equipment to fly that out to indigenous communities,

I've been really fortunate to sort of be all over the place.

But always with a community feel like it's RMIT is a great place to work in terms of allowing us to, you know, voice our opinions, determine what we do on a day to day basis where our career wants to go.

I've been here just over ten years now, and I've moved through many, many different roles, three different departments.

And any time I want to change or do something new, I've just been encouraged, and I've gone very fast through the system because of it.

I was a student at RMIT studying a Bachelor of Business Marketing.

I was working full time at McDonald's, and, actually landed a job on campus and have worked my way up since from working in the IT department into student services and now in the people team.

I feel like in everything that I've done in RMIT, I've been able to shape students futures.

It is about building students confidence.

They doing their degrees.

They're getting the skills that they need, the skill that they always feel like they're lacking ends up being those transferable skills.

They have incredible skills that they should be so confident with and being able to help them build.

That is a great part of the role.

What drives me is the purpose that I feel like I have within the organisation

That's what gets me up, knowing that I can support some students and help them get the role that they're really looking for and dreaming about.

I saw design as a way to solve problems for the community, and I wanted to be able to do the same, the next generation of, young emerging designers.

We have drones and laser scanners, which allows us to be able to replicate the real world.

We create digital twins and replica of the environments so that we can actually bring that back to class and play and mold future, possibilities.

Over the past three years, I've actually spent time an industry myself, and this has brought me to many cities across the world, all the way from Europe to Australia.

And this allowed me to really understand the value of network.

And that's what you get at.

I RMIT network, not just within your colleagues or within your classmates, but the industry connection that we bring back into classrooms.

It's really fantastic to be able to count on your colleagues, to be able to step up, when you have time away, so that you can focus on, my family, and at the same time, to have that confidence and trust that they will be able to deliver the work.