Testimonial
Geraldine Parker
Bachelor of Nursing/Bachelor of Public Health (QUT)
When Geraldine Parker graduates with her double degree in nursing and public health, two of the proudest people will be her children Chloe and James. The QUT student has juggled fulltime study with raising a son and daughter, and couldn’t be happier. Becoming a single parent proved to be the catalyst that changed Geraldine’s career path. “I always knew I was capable of more but my life circumstances didn’t allow me to do more,” she said. “I was a fulltime mother and I’d worked as a cleaner, a receptionist, in customer service and other jobs. University wasn’t really considered in my family, no-one had been before.”
“But when things changed and I found myself on my own in 2004 – I thought now is the time. I always knew that I had a caring nature and empathy for other people and their situations and problems …. so since my late teens I have thought nursing would be a good career.” Now she’s not only studying a double degree in nursing and public health – she also has three part-time jobs and works as an assistant in nursing at a local hospital ward, a QUT student ambassador, and a research assistant with QUT’s School of Public Health.
Geraldine said her interest in studying at university as a mature age student was cemented when she attended the Adult Tertiary Entry Expo back in 2005. “That’s where I met the people from the organisations it hinged on – I wanted to know if I could really afford to do it and there were people there from Centrelink and QTAC who could answer my questions,” she said. “These events really open your eyes and they make you believe you can do it.”
At the expo, Geraldine also spoke to QUT about its Q-Step entry program for low-income students, which includes admission credit and financial assistance. Now living at Camp Hill, she has studied at QUT’s Kelvin Grove campus since 2006. She has two more student nursing placements to complete and expects to graduate mid next-year. “The first year out I’m going to do a year of graduate nursing … uni teaches you how to think like a nurse but the grad year lets you begin to act like a nurse,” she said. “After that, I’d like to use my combine the two areas of my double degree (nursing and public health) and work with the community or government. I’d also like to do more study at some stage and get a masters degree because that helps accelerate your career.”
Geraldine said she thought she was a better uni student now, than she would have been at 17. “But I never get into the divide between mature and young people – we’re all here, we’re all in the same frame of mind, we’re all studying … you should set your own standards, rather than compare yourself to others,” she said.
