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How can international students find a sense of belonging at Curtin? With the help of Curtin Volunteers, Rifath has found her community in Perth.
After working for four years in the architecture field, Rifath realised she wanted to help see a project through from start to finish, which led her to pursue a master’s in project management. While she initially planned to use her degree to re-enter the architecture field, project management offers so many opportunities in a variety of areas. So, she’s now interested in exploring other possibilities for her future career.
“I would love to dabble in different industries. Right now, I’m leaning a bit towards community engagement, and that is because of CV.”
When Rifath first came to Australia, she felt lost and unsure how to find her footing in a new place where she didn’t know anyone. But after receiving emails from Curtin Volunteers about John Curtin Weekend (JCW), she thought it would be a great way for her to explore Australia.
“The first place I went to was Cervantes. It was so beautiful–it blew my mind. Then I just wanted more and more and more. I did a lot of JCWs, then some micro-volunteering, and I just fell in love with it.”
John Curtin Weekend is a large community project that takes a huge number of volunteers to several regional and remote communities to work on a variety of initiatives.
“John Curtin Weekend was an immersive experience of the Australian culture; it was like an intro to Australia for me. It helped me make a lot of friends that I still keep in touch with now.”
So, when Rifath received an email inviting her to apply to be a Curtin Volunteer Leader, she didn’t hesitate, especially as a project management student.
“I thought this aligned so well with my course objectives to be a leader as a project manager. I thought this was the best opportunity to actually apply what I’m learning in real time.”
Over the summer break, Rifath also began volunteering with Ocean Heroes, an organisation that teaches surfing to neurodivergent children. When she found out CV was planning a collaboration with Ocean Heroes, and CV staff member Norma asked if she wanted to lead the project, she was ecstatic.
“I was sharing something that I loved so much with a bunch of other students from Curtin. It made me feel so full. The most satisfying thing about that was that at the end of the session, everyone was like, ‘Tell me when the next session is. I want to sign up.’”
Rifath feels the CV experience has helped her not only with her technical skills, in applying aspects of her degree to CV, but also with her social skills.
“It’s made me so much more open to experiences and opportunities in Australia and made me a little more confident in my own abilities. When our mentors asked what I wanted to improve through my CV leader journey, I said ‘I want to be a little more assertive’, and I can see that happening.”
Rifath also notes that the staff at CV have been extremely supportive of her journey as a CV leader.
“I really, really admire Mark, Krishan, Norma and Caitlin because they’re such a small workforce, but they’ve managed everything so wonderfully, and all our training sessions were so insightful.”
Rifath’s advice for students applying to be a volunteer or CV leader is to “jump in the deep end.”
“Signing up for CV leadership will grow the way you are as a person. If you’re interested, that’s literally the first step. You’ll learn the rest–it’s all about learning on the go.”
Rifath also hasn’t found balancing her role as a CV leader with her other commitments difficult. The staff checks in at the beginning of the semester to ensure the CV leaders are only undertaking projects they can commit to.
“It’s very flexible. And there is support left, right and centre.”
