Month: March 2016

sheila matthews 1

     SHEILA MATTHEWS

“During another strike a brick was thrown through the bus window as I was driving. I  just stepped on the gas! I didn’t dare stop.”

I recently retired from Melbourne University, as a Clinical Trials Coordinator managing a national project for Indigenous Australian children.

Over 70 % of our Indigenous children have chronic hearing loss from an early age which can affect them for life.  The most appropriate treatments for them are still being debated, so the project is following up and measuring the outcomes of 2 different options.

My career path has been convoluted, but certainly not boring.   I’ve worked with an amazing array of people and professionals.

My mother told me from an early age that I would follow family tradition and go into nursing. I left high school at the end of 1969, when the major career choices for women were nursing, teaching or secretarial duties. Continue reading →

Tania Kunze a ceramic artist from Adelaide working on piece on the pottery wheel

Photography by Val Bubner

     TANIA KUNZE

“A hard earned thing is deeper appreciated.”

I am a ceramic and mixed media artist, specializing in custom design and community projects. My small business trades as Tatty K.

I didn’t really know who I was or what I wanted to do at school, so I quit school after year 11 and worked in retail and hospitality (because I knew how to work hard and be polite to customers – and therefore earn a wage).

I also moved out at 17, because my parents lived in the rural area of Darwin & I couldn’t wait to live in the city. At 19, I moved to Brisbane with a few friends & continued to work as a waitress, barperson, maitre’d, short order cook, book keeper – “whatever was needed”.  Continue reading →

Venus Brutnall manager of Premier Pilates in the studio

VENUS BRUTNALL

“This time, rather than just doing the moves, I was learning the theory of movement.”

I am the Head Pilates Coordinator and Educator for Premier Sports & Spinal Medicine Injury Specialist. Along with my team I co-manage four Pilates studios in Melbourne.

From an early age I was quite a talented young athlete, especially in gymnastics. In those times there was no minimum age requirement to become a gymnastic coach in Queensland. So at the young age of 8 years I started a career in coaching gymnastics.

This would ultimately shape my eventual career path more than twenty years into the future. The idea of going through all of the proper channels in order to acquire the certifications required to become a coach Continue reading →