Michelle Heard—The Impact of Opportunity: My Experience (So Far) as a Rotary Global Grant Scholar
Michelle is from San Antonio, Texas. She has a scholarship from the Rotary Foundation, which supports students in specified areas, one of which is peace and conflict resolution. Michelle is half way though her two years of study in Melbourne.
Michelle grew up in a military family, with a father and brother in the military. She studied at Texas A & M University to be an accountant. After graduating, she worked for KPMG in oil and gas tax consulting.
Michelle decided to go back to University to study in the area of peace and conflict resolution because, coming from a military family, she saw the ripple effects of conflict. This gave her empathy for people who are refugees from conflict countries. Houston, Texas, has a high rate of refugees, so Michelle decided to refocus her life on these people.
Michelle is doing an MA, which is essentially a humanities degree, but in a Management School. She has been impressed by the diversity of Melbourne, including among her fellow students, who come from many different countries and backgrounds.
Michelle has done a lot of Rotary activities while in Australia. She has joined the Rotaract Club of Melbourne City. She has done volunteer work with the Brotherhood of St Laurence, working with refugees and asylum seekers. She has worked in a program with the Brotherhood that involves taking refugee youth on tours of places where there are volunteer activities that can give them work experience. These include the BSL op shop, SYN Radio, Collingwood Children’s Farm, The Social Studio and Lentil as Anything.
Michelle ended her talk by sharing some amusing stories of confusion she experienced in interpreting Australia English.