Students encouraged to embrace opportunities

Secondary students from the Baw Baw and Latrobe areas were encouraged to step out of their comfort zone and embrace opportunities at the annual Inspiring Young People dinner last week.

Hosted by Baw Baw Latrobe Local Learning and Employment Network (LLEN), the event provided motivation, ideas and direction to year 10 secondary students starting to assess their career options.

The event allowed students to connect with experienced guests representing a range of careers including trades, emergency services and professions.

Celebrating the 21st anniversary of the Inspired Young People event, more than 5000 young people have attended past events with the aim of discovering new pathways that they may not have previously considered.

Host and guest speaker was Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership director Adam Hogan.

He said careers rarely followed a straight path.

"Sometimes you know exactly what you want to do but sometimes you take another direction that you didn't expect," he said.

While he was at school, Adam said he wanted to be a teacher or police officer but ended up studying chemical engineering and undertaking a range of part time jobs that got him through university.

He then joined the police force, which opened his eyes to how people lived, and in his fourth year, decided to undertake a Diploma of Education and pursue teaching.
Adam went from the police force to being a graduate teacher at Kurnai and then onto positions at Maffra and Lowanna where he was appointed prinicpal.
"It was an opportunity to leverage what I had learned about leadership...build credibility and build trust," he said.
Adam said he once had the opportunity to meet former US president Barack Obama. He asked him to provide a message to young people.
The former president said: "Don't focus on who you want to be, think about what you want to do."
Adam encouraged young people to be driven by what they wanted to contribute to the world.
Kirsty Sheedy, a paraplanner at McMillans, challenged students to ask themselves "why not?"
"Sometimes you just need to take the first step. Sometimes it just takes one why not to change the direction of your life," she said.
Kirsty said she finished high school not knowing what she wanted to do. Since then, she said the "detours" had taught her as much as the things that went to plan.
"I didn't have any idea what I wanted to do and changed my mind constantly," she said.
Kirsty settled on occupational therapy and was accepted into Federation University. One failed subject was all it took for her to question if that was the right career path for her.
She flipped her focus to a Bachelor of Business and a number of part time jobs.
An overseas trip helped to take her out of her comfort zone.
Kirsty landed a job at McMillans in administration and saw it as the perfect opportunity to build a career in financial planning.
"Sometimes the things you stumble across are the things that suit you best."
Kirsty said she had balanced work and university, with the study and pracictal experience complementing each other.
Kirsty told students not to let a bad mark define their success. She said her failed subject didn't mean she wasn't capable of achieving, it just wasn't the right time.
"Learn from it, change direction and you will still end up somewhere great," she said.
The event also featured a motivational speech by physiotherapist Leila Raymond who told students to embrace the failures because behind the big successes were failures.
She told students to ask themselves, "what's your purpose in life."
A panel discussion about schools and career paths featured Max Lietzau (sport and recreation), Lilli Sim (real estate) and Siobhan Kinman (electrical and instrumentation technician).