{"id":31841,"date":"2026-10-19T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/?post_type=oasis-news&p=31841"},"modified":"2026-08-05T16:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T08:13:11","slug":"my-curtin-story-rifath","status":"publish","type":"oasis-news","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/oasis-news\/my-curtin-story-rifath\/","title":{"rendered":"How Rifath found her community as a CV leader"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Reading time: 3 minutes<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can international students find a sense of belonging at Curtin? With the help of Curtin Volunteers, Rifath has found her community in Perth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s 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\u2019s now interested in exploring other possibilities for her future career. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would love to dabble in different industries. Right\u202fnow,\u202fI’m\u202fleaning a bit towards community engagement, and that is because of\u202fCV.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Rifath first came to Australia, she felt lost and unsure how to find her footing in a new place where she didn\u2019t 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.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe first place I went to was Cervantes. It was so beautiful\u2013it 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.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJohn 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.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when Rifath received an email inviting her to apply to be a Curtin Volunteer Leader, she didn\u2019t hesitate, especially as a project management student. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought this aligned so well with my course\u202fobjectives to be a leader as a project manager.\u202fI thought this was the best opportunity to actually apply what I’m learning in real time.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI 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\u202fthat at\u202fthe end of the session, everyone was like, \u2018Tell me when the next session is. I want to sign up.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s made me so much more open to experiences and opportunities in Australia\u202fand made me a little more confident in my own abilities. When\u202four mentors asked what I wanted to improve through my CV leader journey,\u202fI said \u2018I want to be a little more assertive\u2019, and I can see that happening.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rifath also notes that the staff at CV have been extremely supportive of her journey as a CV leader.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI really, really admire Mark, Krishan,\u202fNorma\u202fand Caitlin because\u202fthey’re\u202fsuch a small\u202fworkforce, but\u202fthey’ve\u202fmanaged everything so wonderfully, and all our training sessions were so insightful.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rifath\u2019s advice for students applying to be a volunteer or CV leader is to \u201cjump in the deep end.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSigning 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\u202flearn the rest\u2013it’s\u202fall about learning on the go.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rifath also hasn\u2019t 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s\u202fvery flexible. And there is support left, right and centre.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How can becoming a Curtin Volunteer leader help you find a sense of community? Meet Rifath, a project management student and a CV Leader. | Reading time: 3 minutes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4495,"featured_media":31842,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_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":"7238,8461,4850,6546,7118,5760","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_oasis-categories":0,"footnotes":""},"oasis-categories":[250],"class_list":["post-31841","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\/08\/Rifath-Oasis-Profile.jpg","author_meta":{"first_name":"Nikita","last_name":"Arun","display_name":"Nikita Arun"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/oasis-news\/31841","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\/4495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/oasis-news\/31841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"oasis-categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/oasis-categories?post=31841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}