Stories

Loving rural living

JCU Education Alumni Lauren Krause credits her own outstanding teachers for inspiring her into the education system.

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Lauren Krause with two friends outside.

From teacher to careers advisor

After working as a high-school teacher for eight years, Raechelle Rauwerda decided to change course and study a Master of Social Work at JCU. Across two different placements, she learned how to better help children plan their future careers and how to get their parents on board as well.

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Raechelle Rauwerda

Insuring a tropical lifestyle

Associate Professor in Sociology, Nick Osbaldiston, has always had a keen interest in understanding people’s lifestyles and the broader patterns of society. Nick gives some insight into sociologists’ valuable research and what it can tell us about different lifestyles.

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A smiling woman is laughing while reaching into a packing box and is surrounded by other packing boxes.

A rewarding road to teaching

Courtney Hawkins, who studied a Bachelor of Education (Primary) at JCU and is now a Year Six teacher at Pimpama State School, shares with us her journey to teaching and supporting students in the classroom.

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Year Six teaching Courtney Hawkins sits at her desk smiling in front of a laptop with classroom posters on the wall behind her.

Telling our own tales

The sight of tassel-topped cane fields and the scent of molasses sweetening the breeze are integral to the story of North Queensland agriculture. But the timelessness of these sights and scents are contrasted with sugar industry narratives that are stuck firmly in the past. JCU creative writing PhD student Elizabeth Smyth is rewriting the narrative to bring sugar industry stories into the 21st century.

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Cane field at sunset