School of Humanities and Social Inquiry

my name is Tom and I studied a double degree in Arts and International studies at the University of Wollongong

 

I currently work for the Parliament of Australia for the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs defense and trade. In that role I'm responsible for preparing research for senators around different inquiries that they're holding at the moment I'm probably organized hearings and just providing senators with information and support that they

need to run those committees successfully

 

My first day at UOW was really great and started out with a mentoring session which paired me with other students studying my degree and also a student was more advanced in that degree when we went around campus together learned how the library works, how referencing works and got a better idea of what our degree would

look like and it was a really great start to my university degree because I felt really prepared and I'm also still friends with all of those people today. So I think it set me up really well.

 

I did a few study abroad programs while I was at UOW, at the end of my first year I spent a summer studying at the University of New Caledonia in uni on that program combined language learning so intensive French classes every morning with lectures on a range of topics like Pacific politics of history, French culture in the afternoons and

then in our spare time we were able to I guess explore that island a little bit more and go snorkeling and lay on the beaches and meet some local people and learn more about the culture of the island so that was my first taste of exchange at UOW

 

I didn't really know exactly what I wanted to do when I came out of school but UOW had a lot of really flexible study options that allowed me to study a real broad range of things that really interested me at that point it was the only university that was offering a double degree in arts and international studies and that let me combine my interests in literature film international relations politics history and come out of it with a degree that I thought encompassed a real broad range of my interests there's a lot that I really enjoyed about studying at UOW for long as a beautiful city and I loved studying on the campus definitely the best part was the people I've made so many great friends while studying here that have really stayed with me now but in my career I felt like a lot of the academic staff really cared about my result

we wanted me to be the best that I could

be while I was here