What's Next - Thomas

VISUAL: RMIT PIXEL. TRANSITIONS INTO RMIT SHAPES. 

TEXT ON SCREEN: “THOMAS”

AUDIO: AMBIENT MUSIC

VISUAL: INSIDE. CLOSE UP HEADSHOT OF THOMAS TALKING TO CAMERA. NAS BUILDING IN THE BACKGROUND. 

Hi everyone, my name is Tom, and I study sustainable systems engineering and industrial design. I actually started at RMIT in 2014 in mechanical engineering and industrial design before switching in 2015 to sustainable systems.

TEXT ON SCREEN: "WHAT'S THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE IN YOU NOW, COMPARED TO WHEN YOU STARTED HERE?"

I think the biggest difference between me when I started RMIT and me now is probably my confidence. I used to be terrible at public speaking, like so bad. But I developed those skills at RMIT through speaking at the Melbourne International Student Conference which I was asked to do in 2016 and freaked out, and so I emailed Martin Bean, our vice chancellor, and asked for some public speaking tips and was able to meet with him and get some of those and I feel like all the presentations I've done in uni, run some open day training and things and I've really learned from that, so I feel like my confidence has been boosted quite a lot more.

TEXT ON SCREEN: "HOW HAS RMIT HELPED YOU PREPARE FOR THE FUTURE?"

RMIT helped me prepare for the future by making me feel confident that I can do any job in any field when I graduate. So, even though I'm in engineering and industrial design, I feel really, really confident that I'd be able to work in marketing, that I'd be able to work in community development, and that I'd be able to work in any sort of area that I wanna work in because I've actually done that.

I went into this degree wanting to be an industrial designer and five years later I still wanna be an industrial designer, but I feel so confident that I've got different skills in so many different areas and that's because of my time at RMIT.

TEXT ON SCREEN: "WHAT'S NEXT? HOW DO YOU PLAN TO SPEND NEXT YEAR

So I plan on spending the next year by really enjoying some of my time, visiting some of my friends that I made on exchange and friends that I made here at RMIT in their own countries, having some of them visit me here, and maybe working more on my language study as well because it's something that I've really been enjoying in my spare time and I'd like to sort of take it to the next level.

TEXT ON SCREEN: "WHAT ARE THE  BENEFITS OF THE LIFELONG CONNECTIONS YOU'VE MADE AT RMIT?"

I have been quite lucky to be able to get involved with so many different things while I've been at uni. I've been on exchange, I've played ultimate frisbee for three years now with the RMIT Ultimate Frisbee Club, and I've made so many friends that I didn't expect to make, and a few friends that I did as well.

So, I feel like I've got friends now in over 45 different countries from exchange, and I've got all these amazing friends at home in Melbourne that help me to develop myself as a person and help me to learn new things about the world and learn new things about other cultures and other people, and I feel like the benefits that I get from those friends are being able to be the best human I can be.

TEXT ON SCREEN: "IF YOU COULD GO BACK TO WHEN YOU STARTED AT RMIT, WHAT PIECE OF ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE YOURSELF?"

To get involved now, as in get involved at the start of your degree, because I find that I got involved in my second year which in a five year degree, is still okay, that's getting involved early, but it was one of the best things that I did at RMIT. I got involved with mates at RMIT, and that opened so many more doors for me.

I met so many people from so many cultures, I got involved with ultimate after that, I spoke at conferences, I got part time work experience. So I feel like I, I think I would say that the earlier you get involved, the better.

VISUAL: RMIT PIXEL, WHICH THEN EXPLODES INTO SMALLER RMIT SHAPES, BEFORE TRANSITIONING INTO FULL COLOUR POSITIVE RMIT LOGO.