A year as Gold Coast Mayor's Student Ambassador
Beginning of 2021, I saw an advertisement on Griffith Mates' social media accounts to become a Mayor’s Student Ambassador (MSA). At first, I wasn’t thinking of applying, but then I have decided to take my chances and apply. I must say, I don’t regret that decision as it showed me the Gold Coast from a different perspective, and as I met the most incredible people. But let’s take it from the beginning.
It all started in January 2021, when I decided to share my journey through social media. This was also kind of the main reason why I eventually submitted my application for the MSA program. The application process involved submitting a video on "day in a student life” topic. I can provide my video for future reference if anyone is interested, but I’m warning you, it is not my best work.
After I submitted my application, I received an invitation for a second round. What can I say, the second round was nothing as I expected. They separated us into a few groups, and our task was to record a video about inviting people to study on the Gold Coast. We were given target country, movie quota, and banana. Yes, you are reading correctly. They gave us a banana to show it in the video. The purpose of that was simple. The company that was helping Study Gold Coast with the second round is called Banana Life. After this, 16 students (myself included) were invited to become 2021 Mayor’s Student Ambassador.
Fast forwards a few
weeks, and it was time for our official induction ceremony with the Mayor of
the Gold Coast. It was my first time in the Council Chambers, and I must say,
it’s an incredible building. Even though our ceremony was held in the hallway
and not in the main room (the main room was under construction), it was a
lovely afternoon. One by one, we walk to the stage to receive our official
certification and a photo with a COE of Study Gold Coast and the Mayor. After the ceremony, we had a chance to talk
with some of the school delegates, etc...
After that, we had a first official event each month. Starting with the Jellurgal Indigenous Experience, in which we were able to visit the Jellurgal Aboriginal Cultural Centre in the Burleigh Head and learn more about Aboriginal practices. We had a guided walk through Burleigh Hill, saw their traditional dances, and had a chance to paint our own boomerangs.
Another event I really enjoyed was at the Gold Coast Airport, where we learned more about what is going on behind the scene (including seeing how they control the runway, which was super cool to see). Our July event was cooking with OzHarvest. I won’t lie, I’m not a great cook, so this one was a bit of a challenge for me. But in two teams we cooked the most delicious meal I have ever contributed. The part about this experience is that all the food we did was delivered to local charities, so if you have food at home that you won’t eat, donate it to OzHarvest, and they can make great meals out of it!!
There were few events that I will not go into too much depth, it was mainly a workshops and a meetings. They were great parts of the whole ambassador experience, but there is not much to write about it. What I would rather write about, is the best event we had. We went to SeaWorld. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a fan of keeping animals in captivity, but SeaWorld on the Gold Coast cares about the animals and I was pleasantly surprised that majority of the animals there are rescued and if they are capable to be return to wild, they will be. We visited the turtle rehabilitation program which was incredibly sad to see, and we got a change to snorkel in their tropical fish tank.
Even though we live in a Covid world, this program and this experience show how lucky we are to be studying on the Gold Coast. This year taught me so much, and I certainly enjoyed every part of it. And who knows, this could be you next year!