I think that opportunity in itself was... oh no. I'm starting again. No.
[Laughter]
My name is Mellanie. I studied a arts and humanities degree and I came through the graduate program through the generalist stream and the disability pathway.
I definitely had very different goals before joining the program, I definitely did not see myself joining government, I was like I do not have any sort of expertise in any of the areas that I thought the departments were looking for. And then seeing that my arts degree is very valued was really awesome.
The thing that I enjoyed the most was the NAIDOC Raise ceremony, so me and another Aboriginal graduate were invited to raise a flag outside of Treasury Place. I got to represent my culture and it was just very empowering for me. The grad cohort that I have are so awesome, we all got to meet each other and get to know each other on a very personal level, which I did not expect coming in.
I got to meet really cool people in government that I now geek over when I see them in the office so the networking and getting to meet different people, I think that opportunity isn't offered in a lot of other programs. And I feel that the colleagues that I work with make waking up and going on a train for an hour into the city, it makes it worth it at the end.
Updated