ALUMNI NEWS 2
Tanja Dunat Timms
Ourschool Alumni Program Manager
What a pleasure it was to have alumna, Sanela Osmanovic present at the Year 12 Graduation this year.
Sanela was part of NGSC's graduating class of 2009. She was at North Geelong for the duration of her secondary school education and was the school Vice-Captain in Year 12. After finishing secondary school, Sanela went on to study law and business management at Deakin University in Geelong. She finished University in 2014 and went on to be a lawyer in Melbourne, which she continues to do to this day.
Sanela opened her speech by commending the amazing resilience shown by the class of 2021, having had to endure constant disruptions to their VCE and VCAL studies over the past two years. Something she, fortunately, never had to experience.
Sanela then reflected on her Year 12 self; with her chubby cheeks and mono brow (her words!), acknowledging that ‘that person’ is nothing like the person she is today. Her Year 12 self certainly would not have felt comfortable presenting to such a large audience without a script in hand. Sanela went on to explain that she has worked hard over the past 12 years, with so many life experiences, to get herself to where she is now.
Deciding to become a lawyer, was something Sanela figured out during her final year at NGSC. The decision to pursue this pathway could not have been any more left of field, as her Year 12 subjects were mainly STEM related. Her motivation was simple. Sanela had met a lawyer who drove a Ferrari. Her immediate thought was, “I’m going to become a lawyer and drive a Ferrari.” And so, she pursued law, however, she is yet to purchase her Ferrari.
The part of Sanela’s speech that resonated with me most is when she spoke about how her time at NGSC put her in good stead to land her first job at one of Melbourne’s top law firms. With 800 applicants, 100 shortlisted and only 10 positions, her chances were slim. She gave it her best shot but, left the interview feeling as though she hadn’t adequately addressed some of the questions that were asked. None the less, to her father’s astonishment, Sanela was one of the 10 successful applicants. Even though she didn’t ‘nail’ the interview, what the interviewers did see in Sanela, was a kind person, with good values, who had come from humble beginnings as she and her family were Bosnian refugees.
Sanela continued to speak about the diverse, multicultural melting pot that NGSC is, and how this helped shape her as a person. Her experiences at NGSC have provided her with the confidence, understanding and empathy to work with individuals from all walks of life. This is something that has not come so easily to some of her colleagues, many of which attended secondary schools with students predominately of a similar demographic.
Thank you Sanela, for pointing out to the class of 2021 that they don’t know what they don’t know and that that’s okay; the exciting part is they have so much time and life experiences ahead of them to explore their options. You reminded students that they are resilient individuals who can do anything they set their minds to, which you have modelled beautifully.
Finally, Year 12 students, enjoy the next very exciting, chapter of your lives. I wish you all the very best and look forward to having you return to NGSC, at some stage in the future, as alumni of the college.
If you are a past student of NGSC, please get in touch by emailing Tanja Dunat Timms (Alumni Program Manager): alumni@ngsc.com.au
