[Transcript of video: 'Choosing diverse pathways' (duration 18 minutes 6 seconds)]

[Music]

What are you doing now and why?

[Seth]

I'm doing music and sound design at University of Technology Sydney. I really want to pursue bringing, creating things and bringing new things into the world. So that's why I kind of connected with music and sound design because I love music and I also, you know, there's like options, there's like you can do sound design for film and stuff and that was really something that I was passionate about. I'd say passion is the number one driver for me in, like, all aspects. I also like as part of Uni course, I've recorded and produced songs for bands and stuff and I do love working in that scene as well. But as far as career path goes, I think I want to go into the film world. That seems like the right thing for me personally.

[Cindy]

I graduated in 2020 and then I went to Uni straight after at UTS and studied journalism and also politics at UTS and then worked a couple of years applied for a cadetship at the Sydney Morning Herald. I've been a cadet for a year and since then I've been kind of doing the Urban Affairs City reporting beat which has been really fun. I'd always enjoyed writing and kind of I think journalism, the fact that you're constantly pursuing the truth and kind of telling the audience the facts with, you know, no fear, no favour. I think that really appealed to me as like a kind of bright-eyed idealistic 17-year-old. I've come to really respect what my colleagues do, especially a lot of, you know, the investigative work that comes out of newsrooms. I think it's really important. It holds power to account, you know, it holds people to account.

[David]

I decided to become a high school math teacher but through the pathway of doing a double degree with a specialisation in maths and maths/physics and that's also with a Master's of Teaching. The reason I decided to choose this pathway is because of a certain time in Year 9, we were looking at a certain topic and my friends needed some help. I remember that moment was seeing the light bulb moment for my friends, just really, it just started like a fire and then ever since that day, the fire's only just grown.

[Rodger]

I ended up studying Communication and majoring in Journalism at the University of Technology Sydney and I also studied the Bachelor of Creative Intelligence Innovation and looking back, I guess I was really interested in 2 paths, 2 very distinct paths from high school journalism and entrepreneurship and I realised that at UTS, I could really be able to get exposure to both of those things and that really excited me. I'm writing my honours thesis on venture capital and startups and that's really exciting because I was able to draw from my experience of starting Australia's very first student-run venture capital fund where we invest exclusively into student startups. I guess the most rewarding thing about university so far is that there are many, many opportunities to give back and I've been involved in clubs and societies where I've been able to organise events for my fellow students. That's really exciting because you get to not only find a community, you also get to give back to that community.

What subjects did you study in High School?

[Cindy]

I was instantly drawn to the humanities so I really liked the idea of doing modern history. I considered taking up extension history as well which I later did and then I did 2 unit advanced English, extension English, geography and biology.

[Seth]

I did English extension 2, standard maths, biology, legal studies.

[David]

Mathematics extension 2 which has extension 1 in it. I did physics, Japanese and standard English.

[Rodger]

I leaned into the humanities and English.

[Cindy]

I really enjoyed English, history, especially extension history. I feel like that was a really good kind of, it helped with a lot of critical thinking ideas that helped in Uni as well as currently.

[Rodger]

I realised that instead of following my parents' expectations of do the highest scaling subjects or the subjects that sound the most impressive, I should really just focus on my strengths and that's what my ATAR would really resonate with, subjects that I was good at, that I was really enjoying and that would translate into the eventual marks that I would receive.

What extra-curricular activities did you do?

[Cindy]

I was in choir for about 2 years in kind of the junior years of high school and then I was also in a couple of student groups. For example, we had like an animal rights group called Raw.

[David]

For winter I always did football or soccer, whatever you want to call it and then for the summer I did table tennis. I really did enjoy sports in high school.

[Seth]

In year 11, I was part of the debating club. I also did tennis and stuff for the school sport. And outside of school, I did rep. tennis for like a couple of years.

[David]

I did take piano lessons outside of school as well.

[Rodger]

I was part of a student committee that ran a newspaper and we did some really exciting interviews with alumni but also we ended up being featured in a really prominent newspaper the Sydney Morning Herald, for our investigative work and then at the very end of Year 12 we actually won an award for the best student newspaper in Australia which was so exciting and that's, you know, partly what contributed to my choices in university.

Looking back, what different choices would you have made in high school?

[Seth]

I kind of wish I would have done music in the HSC. More generally speaking, I wish I paid more attention to stuff that was on offer and my potential paths going forward. Yeah, and I wish I knew it was okay to kind of like diverge off onto a pathway that might not be like the most usual well-trodden path because it took a while for me to like get confident in that idea.

[Cindy]

I would probably not have done biology. I think I picked biology out of like I should do at least one science-y subject.

[David]

I would have paid more attention to how my own teachers from high school would have taught me because they are really, they were really inspiring and a lot of them actually helped or wanted to make me become a teacher myself.

[Rodger]

Something I think I really missed out on was being able to do visual arts for my Year 11 and Year 12 subjects. Originally, I wasn't necessarily getting the best marks in maybe my Year 10 subject. And I was like maybe visual art isn't for me. But now with the benefit of hindsight, I realise that visual arts was something I could have definitely improved on and really made into something really powerful for me because of where I am today where I constantly have to be creative and, you know, employ the skills that you need in visual arts. Just choosing things that I actually really, that I may not necessarily have been the best at but I might have been really curious and really excited about.

What parental expectations were there about your subject or career choices?

[Seth]

There was probably an unspoken expectation that I would attend university after graduating. Yeah, they are generally very supportive of everything I do. There was some like consternation especially from my dad when I was like, oh, you don't do law anymore. But then once he like heard me out and I told him that I kind of just felt like I was being like boxed in and just following a set path, he was like very sympathetic with that. And now they're like fully on board and they're happy than I'm happy.

[Cindy]

They always knew that I wasn't a very STEM focused student or kid. Growing up, I always hated math. I was never good at it. But I think when I told them that I wanted to drop maths at the end of Year 11 after the final round of exams, they were very apprehensive at first because they were kind of like, well, if you're going to drop maths, that kind of closes off a lot of opportunities and pathways for you, especially with degrees that kind of limits the options in Uni. My point of view at that point was that if I already knew what I wanted to do, then why should I kind of consider these extraneous options, which in my head I knew I already wasn't going to do. How I convinced them to let me drop maths was I was like, I'll prove myself, I'll work hard. I can prove I can make it in kind of this other field. And they kind of were like, okay, we'll trust you with this kind of leap of faith kind of thing because it's obviously dropping maths is kind of a big thing in Asian households.

[David]

Once they realised that I was dead- set on going back into education, they were more than happy with that because my family is a bunch of educators. My Mum's a piano teacher. My Dad works for an education company.

How do you define success?

[Seth]

In my opinion, passion is a very important deciding factor in choosing the course of the rest of your life. You can find success in any avenue and it should be encouraged that people follow what they think will lead to a happy and fulfilling life. I think someone being successful doesn't come down to how much money they make, how high status their job is, what Uni they went to. I think it's that they're actively and willingly participating in doing something they love and that they think makes the world a better place.

[Cindy]

No one goes into journalism for the money. I think that's a fact. But for me, I personally would define success as being content with my life, not just in personal life but also professionally. I think if you're happy with the work that you do, if you're proud of the work that you do and every night you go to sleep knowing, "Oh, I'm happy with what I've done today," or "I'm happy that it's brought some kind of positive impact to even one person's life," then I think for me that's a life well lived.

[David]

Really deciding is this going to be something that I can really enjoy or really be able to put my heart out on the line for. The ability to still feel proud of yourself despite of the result, I believe, is what I would define success to be. Is it something, is it like an expectation that your parents or someone else has put on you rather than you wanting to pursue something? Because some people that I know, they've only done certain careers just because they have other people's expectations on them.

[Rodger]

It's not necessarily a set outcome or something to achieve. It's something that I ask myself in the moment, "Am I satisfied with how I'm going?"

How did you teachers shape your ideas about success and career pathways?

[Seth]

Yeah, it was great. I met a lot of great people. The teachers in specific, a few names come to mind, but just all the teachers generally shared similar philosophies, which you might not expect at a selective high school. They were very helpful in reaffirming that belief of me and making me feel confident to do what I wanted to do. Also, yeah, I've met a lot of people even around here that went to the same school as me or went to selective schools. I have friends that do media arts production now, which is another course that's similar to mine. So, yeah, I would say just being in a selective high school environment actually has been very helpful and very conducive to my success in this path, education-wise, more so than some people might expect.

[Cindy]

Teachers were right when they said that you do perform better in subjects that you enjoy, because then at the end of the day, you're more motivated to study for them. I was maybe a little bit lazy as a kid, and I think I kind of drifted along and kind of relied on doing things last minute to get by a lot. But I think being in that environment where a lot of my peers were working 2, 3, 4 times, 5 times as hard as I was, it really taught me that success, you see the end product a lot, but you don't see the behind the scenes of them honing and crafting their skills and kind of working hard, chipping away at something for a prolonged period of time. So I think being around those peers made me kind of more grateful to get stuck into the nitty-gritty and kind of not be afraid of working hard.

[David]

Whatever struggles that I faced in high school, whether it was mental or academic, I believe they helped me overcome and being able to deal with those sorts of challenges has helped me actually help others during facing the same sort of thing.

[Cindy]

One of our alumni students came back and kind of had a talk for people who were interested in the media industry. She was a photojournalist at Reuters, and I found that awesome, like really cool. And she showed us a couple of the shots that she had taken. And I found it really cool that like I had just spent a whole day listening to like doctors, lawyers, engineers. And then so to hear someone who had kind of done really well for herself and pursued her passion and interest, I think that was really cool to see, really inspiring.

[David]

Why I ended up choosing to study journalism and innovation in university was because of the experiences I had in high school. For journalism, I had started a student magazine and newspaper that was quite popular in high school. In addition to that, I partook in many entrepreneurial sort of opportunities, learn how to build your own business sort of stuff and the various startup hack funds that they offer to students. So taking those two experiences, normally, you know, students would say, choose one or the other. And I realised at university, I could in fact do both. if anything, it was encouraged. But there was a lot of pressure to perform and succeed in selective high school. But by having that pressure, it allowed me to see, you know, what being great looks like. But also, it forced me to ask the question, what do I actually want from my life? And you know, a lot of people focus this on, you know, tangible outcomes, like the number that they get from an exam or, you know, what rank they are in, you know, their own high school. But I think by having that experience from selective high schools, I was able to understand, you know, what I really wanted from life, you know. And I think what I want from life now that I understand is far less than just a couple of numbers on a sheet. It's more about my experiences and how I can really, you know, build community and help people. Success is not necessarily an outcome. It's not something that, you know, one day you'll wake up and consider yourself a success. Your And honestly, the goalposts for success are always going to be moving. Every time you achieve something, you make progress, success is going to get a little further away. But maybe that's a good thing. Maybe that just challenges you to do even better and to do even more. And that's, I think, the really exciting thing about success that you need to understand.

What advice would you give to selective students today?

[Seth]

The diversity of options that you can take is the strength. Whatever you do, make sure it's your choice. And typically I find that the one that you have the strongest gut reaction to is the right one. I'm happy on the path I'm taking. My friends from Caringbah who I've met here doing similar things are happy as well.

[Cindy]

I definitely regretted not doing more extra-curriculars because obviously you're under the pump with studying, but also kind of like you realise you do have a lot of free time as well paradoxically.

[Rodger]

Don't be afraid to ask for help, you know, your teachers, your fellow students. I think, you know, when I was in selective high school, the pressure sometimes got me really scared and, you know, it made me hesitate to ask for help. But now that I'm in university, help is everywhere wherever you go as long as you ask for it.

[David]

Do the best you can to the best of your abilities because the better you do in high school, realistically, the more opportunities you have. Because if you decide something is not for you, you can always take a step back and then maybe try something else with that availability.

[Rodger]

Learn as much as you can about yourself and what you like and what you're interested in. So you have a better understanding of yourself. A better understanding of yourself will lead to better outcomes because you know your limits, you know your interests and you know what you want to do with your life. The second piece of advice would be to just have high aspirations. Ask more of yourself. Don't settle. Ask yourself what is it that you truly want to succeed in and then ask yourself if there's anything beyond that that you could push yourself towards. By having higher aspirations I think is being able to dream bigger and I think dreaming big is exactly what makes people happy. So dream big.

[Seth]

And also go Caringbah Calculators.

[Interviewer]

What is that?

[Seth]

It's like the basketball team. The Calculators, Caringbah Calculators.