By CASEY NEILL
Dandenong students took an inspiring look at the study and work options ahead of them.
Dandenong High School teacher Michael Ferguson ran the Pathways and Opportunity Week from 6 to 10 June.
“The overarching aim of the week is to expand the student knowledge of the possibilities of their own pathways, beyond the standard school to university to job,” he said.
Students took part in resume and mock-interview activities, visited the RMIT, Monash and Deakin universities, explored Greater Dandenong and had a CSIRO Laboratory experience.
Swinburne and Victoria universities gave interactive science and engineering-based presentations, and community and industry leaders spoke to students about different pathways into work.
Lawyer Jenny Tran, who works at Maurice Blackburn in Dandenong, shared her story alongside representatives from Greater Dandenong Council, South East Local Learning and Employment Network (SELLEN) and Victoria Police.
Students also heard from past students working as pilots, lifeguards and community advocates.
It was the fourth time Ms Tran shared her story at the school.
“The minute I mentioned I was a refugee the silence was golden,” she said.
“They felt really affirmed by the fact that this was someone who was born in a refugee camp, came to Australia with nothing … and someone who has, what looks like to them, created a very successful pathway for themselves.
“What’s really lovely, I have to say, is how the girls respond to hearing me speak.
“Some of them will put their hands up and say ‘is it possible for me to be a lawyer?’.
“You may not get a perfect ATAR but I’m proof that you don’t need to.”
She achieved an ENTER score – as the ATAR was then known – of 78.85.
“Mum was just so mad at me. I went to MacRobertson Girls’ High School,” she said.
“Comparatively, getting 78 isn’t anything to be ashamed of … but at MacRob everybody’s aiming for the stars and expects to get 99.”
She worked hard for a year to achieve a high-distinction average for her studies then transferred into her dream course – Arts Law at Monash University in Clayton.
“While all my friends were out getting drunk I was studying in the library,” she said.
Ms Tran’s parents fled post-war Vietnam, unable to see a future for their family.
“You did need to show you were from an appropriate blood line if you were applying for a job,” she said.
“My paternal grandfather was a general in the South Vietnamese army.
“He worked together with the Australians and the Americans and the French to fight against the communists.
“Dad’s family, once the communists were in power, were targeted.
“Dad, himself was in prison a handful of times starting when he was 14 years old.”
Ms Tran’s mum was five months pregnant when the pair boarded a fishing boat to freedom.
“They were at sea for five days. They were on a boat with a group of other refugees,” Ms Tran said.
She was born in a refugee camp in Thailand and about six months later the family was offered asylum in Australia.
They set up in a housing commission home in Dandenong West and lived in Dandenong North for a time.
“Eventually mum and dad saved up enough money for us to buy our first home in Springvale,” she said.
Ms Tran was too young to remember the hardest times.
“When the kids talk to me about their stories I’m so humbled by the fact that they have had direct experiences with being kept in detention, for example,” she said.
It was her dad’s lung cancer diagnosis when Ms Tran was in high school that steered her to a career in compensation.
