We showcase the impact of UOW students, teaching, research, and graduates on the world. Our mission is to share inspiring stories that educate and motivate, highlighting the transformative power of education in addressing global challenges.
Articles
Community, Education
Common sense parenting tips with Maggie Dent
Bestselling parenting author and educator Maggie Dent joined us at Early Start Discovery Space for a Q&A with local families.
Community
Leading the next generation of learning
New Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Education) is guided by the belief that education can change lives, not just for the individual but for whole communities
Community, Education
The gift that transformed early childhood play
When Christopher and Barbara Abbott made a landmark donation to UOW, they changed the future of childhood research and built a legacy that would resonate for generations
Students
UOW student teacher inspired to shape the next generation
As World Teachers’ Day celebrates the dedication of more than half a million Australian educators, UOW student Charli Ryan shares how a lifelong dream to teach is becoming a reality.
Community, Education
Nurturing and educating the youngest minds on campus
For two decades Kids’ Uni North educator Jenni Smith has championed children’s growth, harnessing the power of play-based learning and intentional teaching to support their wellbeing and development.
Students
Bronte O’Brien graduates with honours after life-changing journey
When Bronte O’Brien was 20, she became a mum. She didn’t have a degree, a long-term plan or a safety net, just a newborn baby boy and a quiet determination to build a better future for them both.
Community
Professor Ken McKinnon: The visionary who shaped UOW's future
Emeritus Professor Ken McKinnon’s legacy as UOW’s second Vice-Chancellor remains profound and far-reaching. As the University celebrates its 50th anniversary, he reflects on his time here and vision for UOW's future.
Alumni
Hometown heroes: Regional teachers making a local difference
The University of Wollongong’s Master of Teaching program is making an impact in regional communities by enabling teachers to live, work, and study close to home. Michael Clark and Jessica Stuart share their inspiring journeys.
Alumni, Community
The roadmap to teaching in rural and regional areas
After a military career cut short, Batemans Bay-local Michael Clark unlocked his passion for teaching at UOW Eurobodalla. Now a dedicated primary school teacher and soon-to-be dad, Michael shares how regional education transformed his life and the lives of those around him.
Alumni, Community
Embrace every body
With a sense her research was not reaching the real world, UOW graduate and body image expert Dr Zali Yager founded health promotion charity The Embrace Collective, now making a world of difference in how we think about our bodies
Education, Research
In safe hands
Meet Higher Degree Research scholars from UOW's Early Start and discover the 'why' behind their research
Alumni, Community, Education
The stories that make us better
Artists heal our world in various ways: by celebrating Indigenous heritage, building social cohesion, asking difficult questions or telling enchanting stories to our children.
Education, Students
A bright future for tutoring
In celebration of World Teacher’s Day (27 October), we spoke to UOW education student Bianca Walkerden, who is going above and beyond to instil a love of learning in her students through her successful tutoring centre.
Alumni
Giving voice to Country
Peter Hewitt, a Yuin artist and teacher, is introducing people to Country through his art and work in education.
Alumni, Education
The power of teaching
We caught up with current and former UOW students about their careers in education.
Three organisation tips for the new school term
Don't let clutter and never-ending to-do lists shake your confidence. Keep on top of your schoolwork with these straightforward organisational tips.
Education, Environment and Energy
Carbon neutrality, greenhouse gases, net-zero: understanding the lingo of a sustainable future
On 5 June, to mark World Environment Day, the University of Wollongong (UOW) announced its commitment to carbon neutrality by 2030. It follows years of devastating natural disasters exacerbated by climate change, including the Black Summer Bushfires and recent East Coast floods.
Education
How to improve concentration
You're staring at the page, but nothing is going in. You need to learn this information, but you can't seem to put your mind to it. Here are some ways to study smarter, not harder.
Why do we feel anxious before sitting a test?
It’s the elephant in the room, sitting on our chest, eyeballing us as our mind goes blank and the questions on the page blur. So why do we get anxious before tests? And why do some of us thrive under the pressure while others fail?
Community, Education
Teachers strike: what has led to the second walkout this year?
What is the reality for NSW teachers?
Community, Education, Students
Bright minds, bold ambitions and boundless passion
Three UOW alumni share the stories of coming of age and finding their dream jobs right after uni
Alumni
Nature and nurture
For Amanda Essery, Founder and CEO of award-winning premium Australian lifestyle brand Lovekins, creating a business around loving care for people and the planet was like coming home.
Alumni
The heart of social justice
On paper, Dr Romina Santos Reyftmann may look like your typical high achiever: years of study in medicine and law, helping establish a successful fertility clinic with one of Australia’s leading IVF teams, and extensive high-impact work in First Nations justice and human rights law. But you don’t have to dig deeply to see that every success has been hard-won.
Alumni
Harnessing data to solve problems
From predicting when an airplane needs servicing to increasing the number of mattresses sold at a furniture start-up, this former BlueScope cadet shows how diverse a career in mathematics can be.
Alumni
Building a business in Asia with roots in Wollongong
Starting university can mean a lot of change. For some students, it’s the first time they leave home – perhaps even the first time they learn how to cook for themselves or do their laundry.
Alumni
From crash to Colombian classroom
Misfortune can change lives for the better, but that was the last thing on Ed Broadbent’s mind when he found himself on an operating table in India waiting for doctors to mend his broken body.
Alumni
Risk taking, patience and dream jobs
Nicholas Underhill’s career is one that many would dream of having – he’s worked with some of the world’s top musicians at Spotify and is now in a senior marketing role at Google in New York City. But Nicholas didn’t get there overnight – it took commitment, time, and risk.
Alumni
BlueScope cadet alumni stories
From its earliest beginnings, the University of Wollongong was formed in partnership with industry. A cadetship program with BHP and now BlueScope was established more than 40 years ago and continues to develop an outstanding group of leaders.
Alumni
The journey of a parenting expert
He’s carved out a reputation as one of Australia’s best known parenting experts, but this 24/7 job was not something that always came easily.
Alumni
From Berkeley to Boral
Zlatko Todorcevski is living proof that the path to a successful international career at the highest executive levels is not always paved with privilege.
Alumni
Trading steel for silicon
A cadetship at the local steelworks might seem an unusual path to an international career with some of Silicon Valley’s biggest names. But for Omar Devlin, it provided a perfect grounding in solving complex problems.
Alumni
Dynamic Duo
Meet Michael and Natalie Chapman. Despite having two very different careers, the couple share a deep passion and accomplishment in their work.
Alumni
Set up for success
A BlueScope cadetship sent Deborah De Santis on a pathway to become a business leader in the Illawarra.
Community
2021: The Year in Photographs
It was a strange and surreal 2021 for many, with lockdown defining the latter half of the year. UOW photographer Paul Jones shares his best images of the year.
Education, Science and Technology
The future of education is already here
The main role of modern education is to support the next generation of youth in taking on our brave yet slightly broken world
Education, Health and Medicine
From lockdown to meltdown
There are ways to help our kids ride the emotional wave of change after the end of lockdown
Education
Is your child ready for school?
Every year, countless parents debate whether their child is ready for the world of primary school. Dr Lyn Cronin, an expert in children’s literacy and school readiness, says there are signs that parents can look out for.
Education
What makes a good app for kids?
The concept of 'screen time' has been debated and researched, with valid concerns around the impact on children's posture, muscular development and body weight, as well as eyesight and attention span.
Education
Dear Year 12 Me
It feels like decades ago my 18-year-old self was in the position so many others find themselves, at the end of their high school chapter, preparing for the most exciting one: university.
Alumni
For the love of health and education
Steve Jobs once said, “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.”
Alumni
Traversing career stereotypes
Throughout history, women and men have chosen careers that were either expected, inherited or simply all that were available to them. Choices were limited, particularly for women who were often guided into caring and nurturing roles such as nursing or teaching, while men were steered towards more physically taxing or technical endeavours.
Alumni
Born of Steel
If it wasn’t for the vision and generosity of the Illawarra community, who united to support the creation of a place of higher learning in their region, the University of Wollongong would not be the thriving world-class institution it is today.
Community
The Community Resilience project
The Community Resilience project was supported by Global Challenges in 2019 with the plan to explore the adaptability and resilience of teachers and nurses as frontline workers. When COVID19 hit in early 2020, the team found themselves interviewing Australian frontline workers during the worst pandemic of our generation.
Community, Education
What COVID-19 has taught us about our schools
Schools are, at their heart, communities.
Community, Arts and Culture, Education
How Dakota forged his own path
The Bundjalung man is motivated by his desire to change education through culture.
Community, Education, Law, Politics and Society
Summer May Finlay: a voice for change
When the Black Lives Matter protests swept the world earlier this year, Dr Summer May Finlay was front and centre sharing her views on the movement.
General tags, Alumni, Arts and Culture, Education
How Zac is living the dream
For the past five years, Zachary Bennett-Brook's life has been sprinkled with a series of what he calls "pinch me" moments.
Community, Arts and Culture, Study areas
How art helps children to thrive
If children aren’t given the right tools, they can lose the creative outlet that visual arts provides.
Education, Environment and Energy, Health and Medicine, International, Study areas, Science and Technology
A blueprint to change the world
The University of Wollongong is working to effect change on a global level, with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals providing a roadmap for creating a better world for all.
Community, Arts and Culture
When Ernest met Tek
When Ernest Bukasa met Teklemariam Mengistu in 2013 “something clicked”. Both had fled war-torn African countries and arrived in Australia as refugees before settling in Wollongong.
10 reasons you should study overseas
A study overseas program can offer you an amazing educational adventure – and an experience that will last a lifetime.
Community, Arts and Culture, Environment and Energy
Helping Country to heal after fire
Led by University of Wollongong researcher Dr Anthony McKnight, a team of staff, students and community members are helping flora and fauna on Yuin Country in the Snowy Mountains to recover from the summer’s devastating bushfires.
How to win at home schooling. As a student.
Learning is a great way to be spending your time in lockdown, but it’s important to make home schooling work for you. So, if you want to know how to be the best at-home student you can possibly be, read on…
Alumni
Healing the land to heal ourselves
When we think of bushfires, the issues of long-term drought and climate change spring to mind. But it seems the problem behind our fires runs much deeper and longer – and is now in short supply.
Alumni
Creating a brighter future for Papua New Guineans
Life in the third world has never been easy. Access to health care, sanitation, education and general safety has been a constant battle for many. The Coronavirus pandemic has added a whole new layer of health management to an already underprivileged nation.
Alumni
Permission to imagine
It’s not always that we take our Dad’s advice, but when Kendra Rogers was considering her options after high school in Canada, a pearl of wisdom from her Dad made a huge impact.
Alumni
A lesson in appreciation
The 2020 school year began tentatively, with a menacing pandemic in the shadows. It comes to an end, however, on a note of triumph, with a new appreciation for the teachers who united to take on the unprecedented challenge of implementing mass remote-learning during the shutdown. We spoke to the principals of two very different schools on their success strategy.
Alumni
Preparing for change
That the future is the product of the decisions we make today is a sentiment swirling around the corridors of Australia’s education sector.
Alumni
Universities in a post-COVID world
Universities have been transformed by the COVID-19 pandemic and their purpose has never been more important, according to UOW’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) Professor Theo Farrell.
Education
Moving research guidelines
Through the creation of an international database and the application of innovative analytics Dr Dylan Cliff, Associate Professor Janette Green and an international team of experts are collaborating to determine the optimal daily balance of movement behaviours that young children need to best support their development, well-being and learning outcomes.
Alumni
An extraordinary contribution
As the University of Wollongong’s third Chancellor (2009 -2020), Jillian Broadbent AC provided outstanding leadership to the institution over the past 11 years.
6 ways to make postgraduate study affordable
There are several ways you can upskill to enhance or change your career without having to break the bank.
General tags, Alumni, Education, Environment and Energy, Science and Technology
Laura Wells
Scientist, model, environmentalist, television presenter, and all-round passionate human being, Laura Wells defies expectations.
Community, Education, Health and Medicine
Why are our kids so anxious?
At what point in childhood does anxiety begin, and how can we help kids to overcome this increasingly common state?
Community, Arts and Culture, Education
How Bronte discovered her strength
After a difficult few years, Bronte pushed through to realise her dream of attending university and helping to improve the lives of other students.
Community, Education
How schools can meet the autism challenge
As the number of students with an autism diagnosis climbs rapidly, schools are struggling to meet the challenge of supporting students who exhibit a variety of skills and needs.
Community, Education
Why Jade was never going to university
The path to education is not always linear. Sometimes it twists and turns, faces roadblocks, and takes unexpected detours.
Stronger together
How UOW is helping young Batemans Bay couple Tom and Teja Roberts build a bright new future in the face of serious adversity.
Community, Arts and Culture, Education
How Jioji finds sunshine among the clouds
Associate Professor Jioji Ravulo has made his mark in South Western Sydney, where he is known for his passion for helping others and his infectious attitude.
How to future-proof your career
Are robots equipped with artificial intelligence replacing people and making jobs redundant? With constant developments in digitisation and automation, it’s fair to say “the future” has arrived. But, there are still a number of human-based, natural intelligence-driven jobs robots simply can’t match…yet.
Alumni
In pursuit of excellence
The UOW Alumni Awards shine a light on inspiring alumni working to make a sustained difference in the world. Meet the 2019 recipients, bringing their passion and expertise to advance research, innovation and education, reshape industries and save lives – now and into the future.
Philosophical adventures in time and space
An education in the liberal arts, unlike that of a purely technical or scientific kind, seeks to produce graduates who are capable of reflective understanding – graduates who can stand back and imaginatively evaluate what is required to think well about topics of foundational importance in our lives.
Alumni
Space without borders
Meet Usman Iftikhar, a mechanical engineer and entrepreneur on a mission to democratise space to drive sustainable development.
Alumni
Addressing the mega challenges in a changing world
UOW has formed strong international and domestic institutional research collaborations to tackle serious issues impacting our global population, according to Professor Paul Wellings CBE, Vice-Chancellor.
Alumni
China Alumni Events
Thank you for attending our alumni events in China in October. It was great to see so many alumni enjoying each others company and making connections.
Top 20 skilled careers in 2023
With rapid changes in technology, it can be hard to know which jobs will still be around in a few years' time.
Health and Medicine
From refugee to GP
Ram Khanal was raised in a Bhutanese refugee camp. Now the student of medicine is working to bring healthcare to those in need.
Education, Study areas, Science and Technology
The information revolution: Opening minds to new possibilities
In a world saturated with technology - where almost everyone has a smartphone and a lifetime of information at their fingertips - you'd be forgiven for thinking greater access has led to greater equality. But Professor Sue Bennett would argue that's not necessarily the case.
Community, Arts and Culture, Study areas
A classroom in the outback
Nalawan outstation is a world away from the typical university experience.
Community, Study areas
How creativity is changing Bellambi
The suburb of Bellambi often makes headlines for all the wrong reasons. But a new initiative is bringing the University of Wollongong together with the community to celebrate the people of Bellambi.
Community
Helping young carers achieve their dreams
For the more than 275,000 young carers around Australia, caring for a loved one can often come at the expense of their goals and ambitions.
Alumni
Window of opportunity in Illawarra Flame House
If you’ve ever wondered how to get a whole house through customs, Lloyd Niccol is your man.
Alumni
Mem Fox on mice, migrants and the magic of reading aloud
At the time, a young, unpublished Mem Fox was sending her first manuscript out to publishing houses, hoping to add Hush the Invisible Mouse to the landscape.
Alumni
Making an impact
The UOW alumni community is made up of some pretty incredible people. Here we celebrate younger members of our global community who are establishing themselves as tomorrow’s leaders.
Alumni
The secret to truly smart cities
Smart lights, smart water meters, smart waste disposal, even smart parking are great ideas, but if only a section of the community can use it, is it really as smart as we think?
Alumni
The year at UOW
For UOW, 2018 has been a year defined by where we’re from, and a year that defined where we’re going.
Health and Medicine, Study areas
Get up and move to improve children's learning
What if increasing the amount of physical activity each day could improve children's learning?
Alumni, Community, Health and Medicine
Empires built on health and fitness
The health and fitness sector has been booming and rapidly evolving over the past decade. As more and more people seek out information on how to hit their goal weight, achieve a fitness aspiration or make lifestyle changes for the better, the industry has responded.
General tags, Alumni, Arts and Culture
Indigenous storytelling finds new voices
From ancient dreaming stories to Indigenous youth of today, Kirli Saunders is giving back to community through Indigenous storytelling.
Alumni
Using the brain on the bench
Electromaterials pioneer and NSW Scientist of the Year, Professor Gordon Wallace has discovered an innovative way to read your mind.
Alumni
The year at UOW
UOW has continued to strengthening our ties with the community, invest in global impact research, and support society domestically, all while enriching and inspiring students with an unforgettable experience.
Alumni
Making an impact in 2017
Celebrating alumni who are establishing themselves as the leaders of tomorrow.
Alumni
The ones to follow
UOW alumni are ambitious, creative and connected and they’re gaining quite a following. Here are just a few we like to follow.
Community, Education
Building a love of literature
Books spark a child's imagination, stoke their curiosity, develop their language skills and provide a window into worlds unknown.
General tags, Alumni, Health and Medicine
The bush beat
When Hugh Stump was a child, the nearest hospital was at least an hour away from the family farm in north-west New South Wales. But flooding rains would turn black soil to mud and he, like so many people in the rural and remote areas, missed out on even the simplest of medical check-ups. Let alone major or critical services.
General tags, Alumni
Meet the makers – Katherine Sabbath
Katherine Sabbath is a baking queen - a cake creative with an international cult following of more than 435,000 on Instagram. Her creations have inspired thousands of home bakers around the world, she has published her own pop-up cake cookbook and appeared as a guest chef on the 2018 season of MasterChef. But she wasn't always a professional baker.
Alumni
Breaking through boundaries
New drugs to combat cancer, a ‘game-changing’ renewable battery made from salt, and a remarkable discovery that changed our understanding of early human dispersal and evolution.
Alumni
A gift to water the seeds of innovation
Former University of Wollongong Vice-Chancellor Emeritus Professor Ken McKinnon AO and his wife Suzanne Walker have gifted more than $1 million to UOW for a fund that fosters innovation and supports excellence.
Alumni
The barefoot teacher
Young and boisterous children sit in silent awe when James MacDiarmid’s classes start rolling.
Alumni
Blazing a trail
Women are still the exception in the upper echelons of management and power despite decades spent trying to smash the glass ceiling. Keeli Cambourne reflects on her experiences and spoke to those leading the way on workplace gender equality.