After meeting Jackie on Thursday 25th February 2021, I could see exactly why she had been elected school captain in three quite different schools. She is such an impressive young woman and a wonderful advocate for her chosen profession as a dietician as St. George Hospital, Kogarah. She was glowing with good health and vitality despite the many pressures and challenges of her role as a dietician in a multi discipline health team supporting the recovery programs of oncology patients.
Jackie was appointed to her role at St George Hospital mid 2020 in the middle of the Covid19 pandemic. One of the supervisors of the health team remembered her from an interview in 2019 when she applied for a vacant position in the team. While she was not successful in 2019 as a result of her limited experience as a recent graduate she had made an impression on the team supervisor, who invited her over a year later to join the team when another vacancy occurred.
Jackie described her current role as “my dream job” because it is quite close to where she and her family live and St George Hospital has a fine reputation for patient care. She remained positive in the face of several rejections from job interviews after she graduated 2018 from the University of Wollongong. During the period fromgraduation in 2018 until mid 2020 Jackie was able to secure a 13 week appointment as a casual dietician at Prince of Wales Hospital. The 13 weeks was soon extended to 6 months, giving her invaluable experience as a young graduate seeking a permanent position. When not working as a dietician she worked in cafes in thehospitality field. She was worried about the temporary and insecure work during that period but remained confident and focused on the pursuit of her chosen career. The pile of rejections from her applications did not deter her.
She remarked that her capacity for self belief, resilience and perseverance assisted her to deal with the disappointments of post graduation job seeking. Jackie was very proactive in her pursuit of her “dream job”, sending resumes and summaries of her work placements and casual work experiences to several prospective employers. She described herself as a “focussed and determined” young woman, “driven to do her best at all times”. I am sure her patients and team leaders would have realised this over the last few months.
During year 11 at GRC in 2013 Jackie was targeted for a scholarship program in Hospitality, one of her HSC subjects which she really enjoyed. She was the only GRC scholarship candidate to receive an offer for placement in Kenvale Hospitality College. She decided to continue with her HSC at GRC in 2014 after discussing the future career options with her parents and her GRC Hospitality teacher who insisted that she could do well in the HSC and gain entry to the Dietetics course at the University of Wollongong. Jackie turned down the scholarship offer. She remains very grateful that her Hospitality teacher showed so much faith in her and the prediction about gaining university entrance ( ATAR 93.00) was very accurate indeed.
The well known Sydney dietician Suzy Burrell inspired Jackie to pursue a career in Dietetics. Ms Burrell appears on TV and radio regularly and is widely regarded as pre eminent in her health field. Through her association with Ms Burrell Jackie was able to discard her pre diabetic medication and adjust her food intake to manage her condition. While she had always excelled in a variety of sports throughout her years at three schools, including Oz Tag, Swimming, Gymnastics and Athletics, Jackie had always battled some serioushealth challenges herself and was determined to seek a remedy for them.
Jackie is very appreciative of the opportunities afforded to her at GRC senior campus, Penshurst Girls High campus and Peakhurst West P S. She thrived in each school environment and inspired her fellow students to elect her as school captain in all three schools, a significant achievement for her. She relished any responsibilities entrusted to her as student leader and school captain, including public speaking opportunities and the organisation of school functions, ceremonies and celebrations. She is well aware of critical comments about public schools and public education from time to time in the wider community and responds with positive accounts of her own public schooling and that of other members of her family. Her confidence in her own debating skills would be such an asset in these situations.
Jackie welcomed any opportunities to interact with her fellow student leaders and with Ms Bedwell, the GRC Principal in 2013-2014. She was well versed in meetings procedure and project/team management. She commented that MS Bedwell encouraged her to demonstrate initiative and Jackie felt this contributed to her development as a confident young woman about to embark on University studies before a career in the Health Sciences.
Jackie’s work placements for her TAFE and Hospitality HSC courses as well as her fourth year University work placements contributed to the development of her skills as a health practitioner. Her final year research thesis on food packaging and its relevance for aged care patients certainly contributed to the growth of her professional knowledge and skills.
Jackie still keeps in touch with friends from 2014 and values those friendships. She attempts to create a work/life balance just as she advises her patients to do in their health recovery programs.