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Where did you grow up and go to school?
I grew up in Devonport and went to Nixon Street Primary School and Devonport High until Grade 9. I then moved to Launceston and attended Prospect High and Launceston College.
What did you want to do when you grew up?
I always wanted to be a medical doctor, so in high school I took Science Extended and Forensic Science. At college I enrolled in Physical Sciences and also took short courses in Sociology and Psychology.
I achieved some pretty good grades in Grade 11, but it was apparent that my abilities in humanities were stronger than in science. I took a deep look at what it was about medicine that I really liked and discovered that while I enjoyed chemistry and looking at things under a microscope - not to mention diagnosing my dolls' and teddy bears' illnesses - it was the human element that I loved about medicine. I wanted to help people.
How did you combine your love for science and working with people?
Even though I realised I wanted a career helping people, I still loved the precision of science. I loved experiments, testing hypotheses and investigating how things work. I then realised that with Psychology you can do work just like that! However, the difference between 'traditional science' and Psychology is that Psychology has that human element that I desired. What better way to combine my love of science and my desire to work with people than by doing Psychology?
How did you study Psychology as an Arts student?
When I started university I could have studied Psychology through either a Bachelor of Science or a Bachelor of Arts. Whilst I loved experiments and hypothesis testing, there were still some things in science that I wasn't so good at, and I had to acknowledge both my talent and my equal love of the arts. So I did a Bachelor of Arts and to get the best of both worlds I combined humanities subjects (Philosophy and Literature) and science subjects (Psychology). I continued Psychology all the way through my undergraduate years and am now doing a PhD. As a PhD graduate I will still be a doctor, but a doctor for how things affect a person mentally, rather than just physically.
What's your PhD project about?
I'm investigating the influences of culture on a person's experience with life crises. A life crisis is one of those bad things that can happen which changes your life. It can change you into a person who is sad and nervous, or someone who always thinks bad things are going to happen. It can also change you into a person who looks on the brighter side of life, who appreciates each day, and sees their friends as being closer and more precious than before. It can make you realise that you can fight through anything, and be strong. My project is investigating the differences between Australian and African people in their experience with life crises. I want to know what it feels like inside to experience a life crisis for people from these different cultures.
What do you plan to do when you finish your PhD?
There are two things I'd like to do. One is to be a lecturer at uni, to teach people just like me how to do experiments and test hypotheses in Psychology. The other is to work with African refugees to help them settle in Australia. A degree in Psychology and a PhD with African refugees will let me achieve both of these things.
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