Shortlisted for the Higher Education Category of the 2019 Melbourne Writers Festival's storytelling competition 'Love & Melbourne' .
Is MELBOURNE Good? MELBOURNE is full of
opportunities!
By Shu Kwan Fung
I started my first time step outside of the Melbourne Airport, knowing nothing about Melbourne, being excited, nervous and worried about exploring this new place three years ago.
I am currently in my final year of my nursing study. Starting from my first year while I was studying, I started to do volunteering in my university. Doing volunteering was my start off point to explore the beauty of Melbourne. For example, I volunteered for the Eureka Skydeck in which I expanded my network and also gained a free trip to visit Eureka Skydeck while I did the meaningful Eureka Climb.
I volunteered for lots of events with lots of different organisations and places especially in my university throughout these three years. As an international student, I did volunteer with International Student Engagement team of my university. This is because I was being helped by others before. As I remembered lots of people helped me on little things such as guiding me to a right direction to seek help from. I am so grateful and delighted by all of the little blessings everyday!
Meanwhile, my soft skills developed a lot and thus I started to volunteering with my faculty. Through joining the student ambassador program and doing the international student representative of nursing, I got plenty of chances to help others as I was supported by the previous students before. For example, through peer mentoring, mentors and mentees are both developing skills and renewing my understanding of knowledges.
In this last part, I want to give out some tips to all the international students reading this sharing:
1. Step out of your comfort zone
2. be brave enough to ask questions
3. remember no question is a silly question
Today, I am comfortable in saying that Melbourne is the best from my own story and you will regret when you lose the chance to explore, to have fun and to broaden your insight. Melbourne is such a city allowing us to balance and integrate our studies and community work.
Hope you enjoy reading this little sharing~