Student Interview: Jody

While walking through the Hub at Mt Helen campus, I spotted Jody sitting behind a stall plastered with photographs of Nepal. I decided that she would make a good interview candidate, and she kindly agreed to take part.

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What do you like about your degree?

I love that it gives me the opportunity to work with a whole range of people and it also gives me the opportunity to travel overseas and use my qualification to help others. So one of my goals in life is just to travel to as many places as I can, to as many poor communities as I can, and to donate my time and the best way to do that is to have skills of teaching, so education’s such an important part of a lot of different countries. It’s great to do that.

Why did you decide to start studying?

I never really questioned it. Ever since I started high school I just knew that I would go [straight] to university. It was just about what course to do. That was my issue in high school: trying to choose which course. But I am so glad that I chose the education course that I did.

Do you have any tips for students?

I would say always keep a balance in life. You can’t forget about those other aspects of your life that you have to look after. As well as studying hard and trying your best, you have to realise that sometimes you just have to put yourself first in terms of health and have some time away from study just to get your head cleared up and then come back to it. Sometimes it’s easier to do that than just be stressed out all the time and do nothing but study.

Also volunteering and leadership. I cannot stress that enough. If you’re at uni, you get out what you put in so just try to do as many different volunteering programs as you can. Gain that experience, because I think I’ve actually gained just as much from doing all of that as the degree in itself. I would not be where I am today without the volunteering and leadership that I’ve done.

What do you struggle with most when studying?

Motivation, because there’s a lot of other things going on in my life in terms of volunteering and work and friends and sometimes it is hard just to sit down and smash out an assignment when you have a lot of things in your head going on.

If you weren’t studying, what would you be doing?

If I wasn’t studying I’d probably be travelling. I don’t know how I’d be able to afford that though, so I suppose I’d be working to also get money to travel, ’cause I think that we should just try to broaden our horizons around the world as much as we can, especially while we’re young and healthy because you just never know what’s going to happen tomorrow. So yeah, if I wasn’t studying I’d probably be travelling.

Jody at the Help Nepal stall

So can you tell me a little about what you’re doing here today?

Today I’m on the Help Nepal pop-up stall and this is all to go towards the Shauna Rose-Kauffman foundation, so 100% of the proceeds goes towards the victimised people in Nepal. I’m actually in contact with a board member, so all of these photos on the table except for one is taken by him and other volunteers, so this is real. These photos are being sent from this foundation to me, to show everyone what their money is helping with.

How long will this fundraiser be running?

It’ll be really pushed in the next month just trying to get as many events as I can going because right now it’s the survival stage. It’s about helping these people survive through this disaster and then later it will be about rebuilding, so actually about helping them rebuild their lives as best that the foundation can. I’m hoping to continue this appeal for a long time.

Have you had much success raising money?

It’s been incredibly successful. It’s only been two weeks and I’ve already raised almost $1000 before including the tin donations, so I’m very excited to finally collect all of that and see how that’s gone. Awareness has spread a lot faster than I could have predicted, so I’m very excited about how many people have jumped on board and cannot wait for next week. On Friday, a café on main street will be donating a dollar from every coffee bought to this foundation. There are quite a few other groups around who want to start events as well, but I’m constantly looking for people who want to just step up and do their own event.

One of the donation tins
One of the donation tins for the fundraiser

Where would you like to be in five years?

I would love to have made a big difference in as many communities around the world as I can. I really want to use my skills and knowledge and all of that to go out and hopefully help a lot of poor communities around the world and in Australia.

If you could alter one thing about the world that would immediately take effect, what would it be?

I would change people’s desire for war and to cause any type of harm to anyone. If I could change the mindsets to make everyone a positive person who just wants to better the world, well…then a lot of issues have been solved straight away! (laughs)

What is your strongest memory, or a memory that you can easily recall?

I have to say [my visit to] Nepal. Right now, dedicating my time towards this appeal, my strongest memory is the kindness and the love that I was given from the Nepalese people and it changed my life. Meeting all these people overseas and seeing how thankful they are for the little that they have is inspiring, and that’s what’s pushing me to help those people now.

What is something about you that nobody knows (or very few people know)?

People probably know about it now because last year I actually took the step to publish it on social media, but I went through a long period of time of having identity issues, and I actually never admitted to being of mixed race. I would actually completely deny it as soon as people asked me, so I very proudly now can say that I’m half Chinese and half Dutch, but it has taken me many years to get to that point.

What is the hardest thing you’ve ever done?

The hardest thing I’ve ever done…umm…this question is hard, actually (laughs). Probably one of the hardest was moving from Queensland to Victoria just starting high school. When you’re in a high school mind set, you have your issues with confidence and all that so moving states — even though I’ve moved states many times before — but at that age it was quite hard. But I’m very glad that I did because it’s helped me gain all these experiences now and it’s led to who I am today so yeah, I’m very glad I overcame that hard time in my life.

If you could have one superpower, what would it be?

One superpower…That’s actually still quite hard! Okay, the superpower to change people’s emotions so that I could make people — like I said before — make people have a loving and kind nature. That would be awesome.

If you could time travel, what period would you travel to and why?

That is a really good question. If I could time travel I would probably go to the future. I would be fascinated to see what the world is like in…maybe 200 years. Also nervous to see, I suppose. It’s kind of like “should I go that far or should I just keep it less just in case?” (laughs) But yeah I’d say in the future, 100 or 200 years I would say.

Would it make a difference if you couldn’t return?

Yeah. I wouldn’t leave. No way (laughs) I would stay right here.

If you were the subject of a movie, which actor would portray you?

Umm… I think that Jennifer Lawrence is pretty gorgeous (laughs) so Jennifer Lawrence would be pretty cool.

If you would like to contribute to the Help Nepal appeal, you can ‘Like’ the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/thehelpnepalappeal?fref=ts

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