I'm Claire Taylor. I'm from Guyra, New South Wales on the Northern Tablelands.
I'm in my second year at ANU studying Science. My mum and dad grew up in Guyra, went to school
and made their lives here. My mum is a receptionist at a car dealership in Armidale which she's
been at for two years.
My dad is a rural postman.
So he has mail run which covers quite a lot of ground.
I have one older sister who's nine years older, who I'm really close to
She is also expecting a baby which is very exciting.
It's the first grandchild to come into the family, so lots of preparations are being made
for that, and mum and dad are ridiculously excited to be grandparents. It's really
such a nice atmosphere at the moment. My favourite thing when I come home is to
spend time with my family. And I look forward to mum's cooking, such as steak and mashed
potatoes, things I've been craving for the last few weeks.
When she comes home we don't curtail our activities but we don't go out a lot so
it's just family time, we just make the most of it really.
Yeah she used to come out working with me on the mail side of things, you know, so.
Sort mail together.
Very good -- yeah sorting the mail, delivering mail.
It's just yeah just spending time together that you obviously miss out on when you're
not at home. [Long pause] The decision to leave home was something that I really wanted
to do. I really wanted to spread my wings and see what was out there. Guyra's such
a small community. It is very close knit and very supportive but at the same time I sort
of wanted to see what it was like to do things for myself and of the world a little bit I
guess. When I decided to go to university I didn't realise how much more individual
work and motivation it would take. At school you don't realise how much your teachers
are there to push you, to make sure you've done your homework or to make sure you're gonna
to hand in that assignment in tomorrow whereas at university it's all up to you, you have
to know when things are due, what's going on. The university and also college has a
lot of things in place for support for students. The lecturers are always happy to go over
things or for you to email them if you don't understand anything. Also college has an academic
network in place so that's really helpful to have past students of that subject who
can reassure you that it will all be okay and you'll get there in the end. Canberra
and Guyra are definitely worlds apart, so it was hard but at the same time it was really
what I wanted to do.
Over the last number of years we've had...
An increased number of students who've particularly gone into tertiary education and that I think
that's because there's also a much wider range of courses than there has ever been
offered. We've seen students go into much more diverse range of universities then we've
ever had. They've moved away from New England area. So for Claire we've gone down to ANU.
But we've also seen the nature of Guyra change over the last five years particularly
with the result of the tomato farm, and the opportunities that's offered in terms of
being both a grower and also the trades that are associated with it. Claire's big shift
was going to the national youth science camp I think that's when you decided.
Absolutely.
Yeah, you wanted to go ANU.
Yeah. That was when I found out about ANU and also its reputation for science. My science
teacher basically told me about this opportunity and said, "Well, why don't you give it
a go?" And that I also approached Rotary because they're involved in the national
youth science forum and they said they were 110% willing to support me as no one from
Guyra had ever attempted to go before.
Claire was always one of the most hardworking students that I've ever taught but she was
also extremely hard on herself, so part of my role was to try and bring her back down
to earth...
And realise that -- that she could do it.
Chemistry classes were the most fun classes at school. That sort of environment encourages
learning because it's so much easier when you're enjoying what you're doing to sort
of further that. And of course Yvette has just been an amazing pillar of support and
with support you can do pretty much anything.
She's always been the sort of kid that, you know, if she wanted to go somewhere she'd
say, "Well mum, you know, I want this to happen." And we'd said, "Well yeah.
You do it. You work it out. You, you know, organise it." She'd organise it and it
was fine. We trust in her judgment that she has a fair idea of what she want to
do and where she's going.
Any student who is considering going to tertiary education and especially those from rural
areas, you won't know until you try. If you're determined and your heart is set,
that is what you want to do, or even if you just sort of want to find out more about it
definitely investigate the situation. There are some new experiences that I've had now,
so many friends I've made at ANU which I wouldn't have done if I hadn't have gone
to college and university. So it's definitely a worthwhile experience.