July 2016

Exploring Kakadu with young Indigenous crew

Our City Camp Manager, Dave Ciavarella, was recently invited to assist on an expedition with young Indigenous people from the Northern Territory as part of the Foundation of Young Australian’s IMPACT program.

Needless to say, we were delighted to be asked to be part of the expedition in July 2016. IMPACT is a three-year social action and leadership program for young Indigenous people studying Years 10-12 in secondary school with a focus of empowering, building skills and fostering a connection to community, country and culture.

Group watching sunset from Ubirr Lookout, NT

A shared vision

The IMPACT program, much like our Cadetship program, is designed to equip young people with the skills, competencies and confidence to complete Year 12 or equivalent and gain meaningful employment.

Participants engage through monthly workshops, weekend retreats and week-long residentials that focus on skill development, individual and collective growth, strengthening cultural identity and building community networks. Sounds awesome, right?

We thought so, so it made sense for our organisations to join forces and achieve our shared goals and visions for young people.

View from Nourlangie Rock, NT

Building leadership skills

The project is designed to develop young people’s leadership potential, self-management and team work skills. Students unlocked their personal intentions and challenges over the course of the expedition, learning about themselves and their team mates in the process. They also had an opportunity to support and push their cohort peers to finish the trek, enduring heat and physical exhaustion and overcoming these adversities in order to achieve personal goals. Amazing and powerful stuff, straight up.

Connecting to country

During the 4-day and 11km adventure trek, the expedition took the crew through Litchfield National Park and Kakadu National Park, starting from Walker Creek and heading out to Florence Falls. As well as providing a physical and mental challenge, the expedition provided a special time for young people to re-connect to country. How incredible does it look!?

View from banks during Guluyambi boat cruise, NT

Florence Falls, NT

The journey took the group of young people through some stunning scenery, natural wonders, as well as a guided boat tour along a croc infested river (!) of the Guluyambi River. Talk about immersing yourself in the wildness of the land.

Crocodile resting on the bank during Guluyambi Boat Cruise, NT

Strengthening cultural identity

The following day, the students hiked up Nourlangie Rock with the help of a Kakadu ranger who spoke about the art, language, story and Indigenous knowledge of this particular meeting place. This allowed students to connect to their cultural identity and explore what culture means to them in an authentic way.

View from Nourlangie Rock, NT

View from Ubirr Lookout, NT

Importantly, the expedition was a place to discuss and share our very diverse Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Culture as we value learning and connection with each other.

Many thanks to FYA and the amazing young people who invited us to participate in the journey.

How to ace your first interview

Getting on the road to employment can be really tough, so we’ve asked the experts what they think makes the big difference. The second part of our series shares some wise words and interview advice from Ernst & Young to help you ace your first interview.

friends

Interview advice from Ernst & Young

As part of the University Pathways Program we visited Big 4 firm EY (Ernst & Young) with a bunch of Year 10 students who are just sussing out how to navigate the confusing maze of life to get on the road to university and meaningful employment. To kick things in this two part session, we were taken to Level 23 with panoramic views of the city symbolically setting off the scene.

UPP participants at Level 23, EY, Melbourne CBD

The first session was all about interview skills and how to sharpen up your tool kit in preparation for any future interviews, be they for a part time job, a university position or that first grad role on the far horizon.

According to our pals at EY there are two types of interview most commonly used to select awesome new candidates for roles in a company; they are discussion based and behavioural based interviews. We’ll give you a run down of each along with some hot tips on how to ace your first interview.

Discussion based interviews

Discussion based interviews centre around talking about you and include questions around your resume, work experience, goals and motivations. An example question might be something like “so tell me more about your weekend role at Coles?” or “you say you are motivated by personal development opportunities, why is this?”

This means you will have to brush up on your personal story, experience, career goals and be ready to talk about them and answer any interrogative questions about anything you’ve included on your resume.

Some hot tips for acing a discussion based interview are:-

1447712877-resume-gif-1435177383

Know your resume: this one’s pretty simple, but very crucial. Familiarise yourself with what you’ve included, why you’ve included it and be able to talk confidently and competently about it. Remember it’s all about telling your personal story.
Link your skills to the position description: make sure you are the ideal candidate for the role by mirroring language, skills and key words from the position description and talk about these in the interview.
Answer questions completely: make sure your replies are comprehensive and cover all aspects of the question.
Sell yourself: this is your moment to shine and to show off all that is wonderful and amazing about your personal and professional skills in order to persuade the interviewer to hire you. Talk up your experiences and ideas. Be your own cheerleader.
Know what you want: set clear objectives about what you want from the role and why you are applying. You will be asked about this!
Silence is OK! this is self-explanatory but honestly, don’t feel the need to fill every gap with words. A well thought out answer is always better than a hurried one. If you need time to think just say “please could I have a moment to think”.

Group work during UPP session, July 2016

Behavioural based interviews

Behavioural based interviews use past experiences to predict future behaviour. The interviewer will ask you to talk about your experiences, share an anecdote where you have demonstrated certain skills skills or ask how you have reacted to a particular situation. An example question might be something like “can you tell us about a time when you demonstrated great leadership skills?” or “how would you respond to a difficult and uncooperative team member?”

This means you will have to think of some good examples of where, when and how you demonstrated key skills before the interview – these may come from professional situations, school, part time work or volunteering opportunities.

Some hot tips for acing a behavioural based interview:

Find a relevant example of skills used to obtain an outcome: go through your resume and pick out your key skills, then think about some examples or situations you were in where you really demonstrated them to other people.
Use a variety of examples to draw from: be sure to have a range of situations up your sleeve; talking about that one time at your part time job which demonstrated teamwork, negotiating, using initiative and everything else under the sun, will not show the diversity of your experience!
Give detail but keep it concise: there’s a balance between setting the scene and going into painful detail. Practice with someone else in order to get the balance right.
Use STAR technique: this is a great way of getting all the details in. STAR stands for Situation you were in Tasks required Action taken in response to situation Result of the action taken)

simpsions

Thanks to Ernst & Young for hosting the interview session for our University Pathways Program.

How to be a personal branding machine

Getting on the road to employment can be really tough, so we’ve asked the experts what they think makes the big difference. The first part of our series is about personal branding.

whoareyou

What is personal branding?

Does it matter? How do I use it to my advantage? These are all questions that might come up for you. James Freemantle from Red Gum Communications has the answers! He recently shared his ideas, approaches and top tips in an engaging and dynamic workshop at NAB Village with a group of curious Year 10 UPP students.

So, let’s think about branding. The definition of a brand is the promise of providing a consistent experience to a consumer. Personal branding isn’t too dissimilar. James explains personal branding as the alignment of the way you present yourself with the way others experience you. There are three ways of communicating: visually, verbally and vocally. All are equally important in terms of defining an interaction, a relationship and in defining individuals. To demonstrate this, the students participated in an activity where they had to deliver a word with an action and correct voice tone in order to deliver the word with impact and sincerity.

James Freemantle, Red Gum Communications presentation; align your visual, vocal and verbal messages.

Does it matter?

In one word: YES! The choices we make with our body, face and voice have a big impact on those around us. How do you cause other people to feel when they meet you? How do they remember you? How can you take control of the impression people have of you? How do you WANT to be experienced?

ambeauty

How can I use it to my advantage?

When you’re meeting someone for the first time, think about your habits of communication that create an impression of who you are, make someone remember you or to take action as a result of interacting with you. Think about what you can do to make this a better experience. In addition to this, think about your default response to a particular situation. Pretty confronting hey? But really useful in order to hone your personal brand and create a good impression. Other tips that James was keen to highlight to the students for maximum effect were body language, breath and voice as these are all things that influence outcomes.

UPP participants, team leaders and staff at NAB Village with James Freemantle, July 2016

Action & feeling goals

We’re about to get serious and talk about goal setting but this is important. We’re going to think about action goals and feeling goals. So first things first, let’s get things clear: an action goal is something you want to achieve in the short term. A feeling goal is the emotional context of the action goal or how you will feel when your action goal has been reached.

Imagine if you were going for a job interview – your action goal might be to create a positive, memorable impression and your feeling goal would then be feeling connected to the interviewer and having your comments affirmed with body language.

Have a think about how YOU can put all these ideas into practice and refine your own personal branding and use it to achieve greatness and success.

James Freemantle works for Red Gum Communications and is a personal branding expert.

Empowering, Connecting, Creating Positive Change

Our friends at The Big Issue are in party mode for the organisation’s 20 year anniversary. So we thought it was time we shared the story of our relationship with The Big Issue Classroom, and the ways we work together with young people in the community.

What do we have in common?

Well, we both work with people from challenging life circumstances and we’re both all for creating positive change for people and the community. But it runs deeper than that – empowerment and connection are at the heart of both organisations’ work, as we discovered when we went to a Big Issue Classroom session at the Centre of Adult Education with a group of young people on City Camp from Warburton Primary School last week.

The Big Issue Classroom – guest speaker with Danya Sterling

The Big Issue Classroom experience

What’s it all about? The Big Issue Classroom educates young people about homelessness, disadvantage and the challenges facing society. The workshops include activities, talks and insights from a guest speaker, who shares their first-hand experience with these issues. The speakers’ stories help break down stereotypes and promote greater understanding among the student groups according to Danya Sterling, Manager of Education Enterprises at The Big Issue.

In the classroom, things like marginalisation, the importance of work and community were addressed along with exploring the stereotypes, preconceptions and misconceptions associated with homelessness.

A central exercise of the Big Issue Classroom was building a tower block from blocks labelled with essential elements required for a happy life – things like education, family, employment, home. In doing this, young people soon realised the importance of these elements and the detrimental effects of removing one of these blocks, metaphorically and literally.

Empowerment & Connectedness

These are two powerful words. And two powerful concepts that run through the core values of both Doxa and The Big Issue Classroom.

Connecting to the community and empowering individuals to facilitate change in their own lives are both hugely important. We see it at Doxa all the time across our programs portfolios of positive life experiences, education opportunities and employment pathways. Much of the focus of our work is empowering young people who are experiencing challenging life circumstances, supporting them and providing them with the opportunity to develop personal and professional skills to get them into meaningful employment.

As part of the Big Issue Classroom we also met Shane, who experienced a long period of homelessness after his father passed away ten years ago, sending him into a spiral of disillusionment, despair and isolation. By hearing his story first hand, the young people from Warburton Primary were able to connect with the ideas and link the concepts explored so far.

Danya elaborates on this, explaining that by sharing their own stories of making positive changes in their lives, the guest speakers show student groups what is possible. She adds that it’s important for young people to recognise the value of a support network and realise it’s OK to ask for help when they need it.

Creating positive change

Once again, this is a key concept for us at Doxa – our programs are aimed at inspiring and creating positive change first in individual’s life and then facilitating a cascading effect across the wider community.

We spoke to two young people from Warburton Primary School about their thoughts and how they would like to help address homelessness in their communities. As they found, by attending a Doxa City Camp and participating in the Big Issue Classroom experience, they gained a better perspective on social issues, community and wellbeing.

Jasmine from Warburton Primary School on a Doxa City Camp

Jasmine, aged 12:

I learned that almost half of homeless people are women and 1 in 5 are primary school age or younger. I feel that we should do a lot more to help. I feel sad whenever I pass homeless people as I wish they had a home. Everyone deserves that.

Dylan from Warburton Primary School on a Doxa City Camp

Dylan, aged 12:

I learned that there are 105,000 people homeless in Australia every night and just how important it is to stay happy. I wish the homeless weren’t in that position. I wish they had better lives. The Big Issue Classroom has given me a lot of perspective on homeless people. If I could help, I would give them money, food, water but most importantly a home.

The Big Issue are celebrating their 20 year anniversary this year! Find out more about that here.
And finally – huge thanks to Nicole and Danya at the Big Issue and staff and students at Warburton Primary School.

What’s NAIDOC Week all about?

Our office just returned from the flag raising ceremony that marks the beginning of NAIDOC week. My news feed is flooded with “Happy NAIDOC,” and cute photos about events. Maybe yours is too or you’ve noticed a few flags flying and you’re not sure what the deal is so I thought it would be useful to break it down.

AboriginalFlag

History of NAIDOC Week

Indigenous leader William Ferguson first organised a Day of Mourning on the 26^th of January 1938, the 150^th anniversary of the First Fleet landing.
In 1940, this day was moved the Sunday before every 26 January and became known as the National Aborigines Day.
This was up until 1955 when this day was moved to the first Sunday in July. This decision was to make this day about the celebration of Aboriginal culture rather than a protest.
In 1956 a coalition of churches, government bodies and Aboriginal people supported the formation of the National Aboriginal Day Observance Committee.
In the 1970’s it was decided by the Committee to make this a week long affair.
In 1991, this was changed to National Aboriginal and Islanders Day Observance Committee to include Torres Strait Islander peoples.

NAIDOC Week Today

There is something for everyone during NAIDOC week, from ritzy events like balls and exhibition openings, to things like family fun days and Elders brekkies, and marches to honour the protest roots of the week.

As an Aboriginal person I take it as an opportunity to catch up with mob I haven’t seen in a while and participate in as many activities as I can. I also take it as an opportunity to reflect on my family’s history, for example what activities did my great-grandmother participate in the 1940’s?

Mr and Miss NAIDOC 2016, NAIDOC Patron Robert Thorpe, Mayor Rober Doyle and Elders. Photo credit: Koorie Heritage Trust: https://www.facebook.com/koorieheritagetrust/

Mr and Miss NAIDOC 2016 (Jordan Kamara Edwards and Merinda Dryden), NAIDOC Patron Robert Thorpe, Mayor Robert Doyle and Elders.
Photo credit: Koorie Heritage Trust: https://www.facebook.com/koorieheritagetrust/

How can I get around it?

Ask your school, university, work or local council if they have any events on.
Check out naidoc.org.au and www.facebook.com/vicnaidoc | www.vicnaidoc.com for more information.
Acknowledging and celebration Aboriginal and Torres Strait doesn’t just have to happen this week and there are plenty of things you can do throughout the year!

Flag raising ceremony at Federation Square, Monday 4th July 2016 for NAIDOC Week 2016

Author: Nayuka Gorrie, Indigenous Programming & Partnerships Manager

Fix Stuff. Make Stuff. Create Stuff. This Is Science.

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

Well, there’s no denying it Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths (STEM) is a hot topic for millennials, the world of education and career pathways in 2016. But, according to The Grattan Institute, by the time students reach Year 9, more than 1 in 3 lack the scientific and/or numerical literacy they need to thrive and for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, the numbers are far bleaker. In addition to this, they report that the proportion of young Australians who study science or maths to Year 12 is in long-term decline.

What can we do about this? Well, getting young people excited and informed about science, inspiring them and opening their minds to the world of possibilities that a career in STEM offers is a good starting point.

20160629_130859

University Pathways Program visit CSIRO

We recently took a group of University Pathways Program participants to CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) HQ in Clayton to discover more about careers in STEM, 3D printing or “additive manufacturing” and generally get them enthused and inquisitive about all things scientific.

20160629_132322

Within CSIRO and the scientific world in general, the career possibilities are numerous, from research scientists, engineers, technicians through to communicators, educators and their very own legal team. Heaps of options right?

Top career tips – interested in a career in STEM?

[gdl_icon type=”icon-asterisk” color=”#0048BB” size=”10px”]Do things that give you options
[gdl_icon type=”icon-asterisk” color=”#0048BB” size=”10px”]Do what you enjoy
[gdl_icon type=”icon-asterisk” color=”#0048BB” size=”10px”]Do as many things for as long as you can

How do science & industry work together at CSIRO?

Something that was heavily emphasized during our trip to CSIRO was the relationship between science and industry. – it’s in their name after all, remember?

For those that think they’re not interested in science, the guys at CSIRO reminded us that it is at the essence of every process as we fix stuff, make stuff and create stuff. If we apply scientific knowledge to a purpose – or an industry – we can relate to then it becomes interesting.

Within the context of additive manufacturing (3D printing), industrial businesses visit the CSIRO lab to test out the $800,000 machines and see if they can harness the new technology for application within their industry. Through this process, the business works out if 3D printing is going to be beneficial for them and CSIRO scientists are exposed to new ideas and creative solutions, triggering new scientific development. It’s a win-win situation!

20160629_140016

Women in STEM

As well as a lack of young people opting for careers in STEM, there’s also a big gender issue across the sector. An Australian government report looking into the ‘Pathways Of STEM graduates in Australia’ found that across the whole STEM graduate workforce, less than 1/3 were females.

Not cool, hey? But the next generation can do something to change that. And they will. Jasmine and Martina, two UPP participants, were both super keen to talk about their passions for science.

Martina_Blog post

Martina, age 15:

“I love science – especially biology, chemistry and psychology. There’s always something new to discover in science. It’s always progressing. It’s mind blowing that things you never even thought about can come true. I’m also a strong believer that whatever your age or gender you should give it a go!”

Jasmine_Blog post

Jasmine, age 15:

“I’ve always wanted to go into medicine and be a neurosurgeon. This is because when I was younger my stepdad got a brain tumour. I helped looked after him and was always asking the nurses and doctors questions, I went along to the meetings and learned a lot. It would be a great feeling to save a life – this has a huge impact not only on the patient but also their family.”

Yeah science!

We’re really stoked that our UPP students got so much out of this visit and were so interested in careers in STEM. A big thank you to CSIRO for hosting the UPP session and opening up all our eyes to the boundless possibilities of a career in STEM… hooray for science!

yeah_science_breaking_bad