{"id":30283,"date":"2026-03-16T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T02:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/?post_type=oasis-news&#038;p=30283"},"modified":"2026-02-10T16:19:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T08:19:52","slug":"from-introvert-to-confident-communicator-how-the-curtin-student-ambassador-program-shaped-one-students-journey","status":"publish","type":"oasis-news","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/oasis-news\/from-introvert-to-confident-communicator-how-the-curtin-student-ambassador-program-shaped-one-students-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"From introvert to confident communicator: How the Curtin Student Ambassador Program shaped one student&#8217;s journey"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>Reading time: 4 minutes<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>For someone who describes herself as an introvert, standing in front of high school students and answering their rapid-fire questions might sound like a nightmare. But for Master of Professional Accounting student Komal, it became the exact challenge she needed, and the reason she joined the Student Ambassador Program in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After completing her studies at Curtin at the end of 2025, Komal is commencing her graduate role with Deloitte&#8217;s audit team. Looking back on her time as a Student Ambassador, she credits the Program with transforming not just her presentation skills, but her entire approach to communication and teamwork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Komal first learned about the Program through a friend who was already an Ambassador. After hearing about Race Around the Uni (RATU) \u2013 an orientation activity for high school students \u2013 she was intrigued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Once I got into the Program, I was like, okay, you get to do the fun stuff, but you are also working on your professional development. That&#8217;s like a win-win situation.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As an Ambassador, her role involves welcoming high school students to campus, leading them through the RATU, and participating in panel sessions where students ask questions about university life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;On that panel, students ask you random questions. Some of them are tricky. Some are okay. When they finish, you have three to five seconds to think about it. There&#8217;s no time for overthinking,&#8221; she explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s exactly this pressure that&#8217;s helped her grow the most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most important skill Komal has developed? Her presentation skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m an introvert and it&#8217;s really hard for me to talk to strangers. And when we have high school students coming here, you get to talk to them and they throw random questions at you,&#8221; she says. &#8220;Whatever you know, share your experience with them. It&#8217;s more about honesty.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Her favourite moment came during a school visit to a girls college, where she spoke with teenage girls thinking about their future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I was in their situation not long ago, thinking about my future. So it was a great thing for me talking to the girls, giving them an idea how life can be as a girl studying at Curtin.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Beyond public speaking, the Program has taught her invaluable lessons in teamwork and collaboration, skills she knows will be essential in her future career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;As an Ambassador, we usually work with other Ambassadors, like in a group of four or five. And sometimes your own thoughts or your approach may not match with others,&#8221; she explains. &#8220;But the fact is that you need to understand what their thinking process is. And I have realised I&#8217;m improving on that.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The skills Komal has gained as an Ambassador align perfectly with her career aspirations. As an auditor, she&#8217;ll be working in client-facing roles and collaborating with teams, all experiences she&#8217;s practised through the Program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;In auditing, you can&#8217;t work by yourself. You need to work in teams. And the more you learn about it, how to navigate the conflicts, the better it is,&#8221; she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She also appreciates how the Program has expanded her network beyond her own faculty and the flexibility the Future Student Engagement team provides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For students considering applying to become a Student Ambassador, Komal&#8217;s advice is clear: embrace the presentation opportunities, even if they feel uncomfortable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t shy away when they ask you to do presentation for RATU. If you are joining Student Ambassador, your main priority should be focusing on your presentation or public speaking,&#8221; she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She notes that public speaking opportunities are rare in other campus programs, making this aspect of the Student Ambassador Program particularly unique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As she prepares to graduate and begin her role with Deloitte, Komal reflects on how far she&#8217;s come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The person I am now compared to my first year is completely different. I was full of anxiety on my first day. I couldn&#8217;t talk to people. Coming out of my shell was a huge challenge, but it&#8217;s been necessary.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And now? She&#8217;s ready to take on whatever challenges come next \u2013 three to five seconds at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Applications to become a Curtin Student Ambassador close on 9 April.<\/p>\n\n\n<section          class=\"block button-block\" role=\"complementary\" aria-label=\"Button block\"\n         data-segment=\"all\">\n\n        \n<div class=\"block-heading hidden\" data-segment=\"dom\">\n                                <h2 class=\"block-heading__title \" id=\"button-block\">Button block<\/h2>\n            \n                        \n                        \n                            <\/div>\n\n            <a href=\"https:\/\/curtin.au1.qualtrics.com\/jfe\/form\/SV_cwEwxN8rCTSDaDA\" class=\"button button--black\" target=\"_blank\">Apply now<\/a>    \n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For introvert Komal, the Student Ambassador Program was exactly the challenge she needed. Now graduating with a role at Deloitte, she credits the Program with transforming her confidence. | Reading time: 4 mins. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4412,"featured_media":30284,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_oasis-categories":0,"footnotes":""},"oasis-categories":[250],"class_list":["post-30283","oasis-news","type-oasis-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","oasis-categories-student-profile"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Komal-Oasis-profile-1588x500.jpg","author_meta":{"first_name":"Louis","last_name":"Humberstone","display_name":"Louis Humberstone"},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-13 12:04:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"oasis-categories","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/oasis-news\/30283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/oasis-news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/oasis-news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/oasis-news\/30283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"oasis-categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/oasis-categories?post=30283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}