There is no doubt that I have been busy with the family, work, community and studies. Besides my 6 children and wonderful and partner I am also proud of a couple of other achievements.

Master Degree in Information Technology

photo: www.abc.net.au/canberra

To be able to complete a Master Degree with 6 children and all the other things I do was an achievement I really didn't expect. Local ABC radio interviewed me at length about the journey and the whole crew came with me. That interview can be heard here

Please visit my Indigenous Page and my CV to have a look at other achievements

Indigenous Information Technology Course

The second achievement that I am quite proud of is a Certificate II in Information Technology Course. It took about 4 months to track down funding but only a couple of weeks to complete and managed to get a mention in the ACT Legislative Assemble earning a commendation from the ACT Education Minister.

At the time I was serving as Deputy Chair of the ACT Indigenous Education Consultative Body (IECB) and was frustrated at poor outcomes for our kids. So we decided to run an IT course for 12 Aboriginal youth (12 because that was the limit for the organisation we used). I must acknowledge the IECB chaired at that time by Chris Bourke. They gave me the support and agenda to apply for the funding to run the course outside “normal” institutions. I engaged a Registered Training Organisation, ANUTech. They provided me with a very flexible learning environment in which the youth enjoyed plus they also had an Aboriginal teacher.

While it took many months to organise and only a few weeks to implement we managed 100% success rate. Something that hadn’t been achieved in the past and something that hasn’t been matched even today.

Most of the students went on to undertake further study; two went to University some went to CIT. I remember one student who went on to get a job at an Internet Service Provider.

Why did this course work so good?

It is difficult to determine but I believe the reason it worked so good was because I tried something new, something different.