Being involved in the Guild has completely changed my perspective on what I want to do after university. It has made me realise that we as individual citizens do have the power to change things we see as wrong. As a student, if you see something wrong and want to fix it, the Guild is there to facilitate that, to help you, and empower you.
I got involved with the Guild in 2017, joining as a member of the First Year Committee in my first year at uni because I was looking for opportunities to get involved at Curtin. As a student councillor in high school, I had a great time and I wanted to continue this work as a part of the Student Guild. I wanted to engage with students and meet heaps of new people, while learning more about the Guild and enjoying my time as a student.
I am able to make a difference through my role as 2020 Humanities Representative by reminding myself of my goals, having a plan to achieve those goals and remaining dedicated to that plan. This year I am hoping to fight against any potential course cuts, ensure Humanities are taken as seriously as any other faculty, start a discussion on the omission of music and address fair trade issues/environmental issues in the Guild.
I got involved in the Guild by running in the Guild elections at the end of 2017. At the time, I was looking for ways in which I could get more involved on campus; I had already had a go at Curtin Volunteers and Curtin Mentoring when a friend of mine suggested the Guild as a way to make meaningful change for the better.
I was working with some volunteering climate organisations already [when] a previous General Secretary, Dylan Heywood, reached out to me after finding me through mutual friends and asked if I would be interested in getting more involved. Of course, I said yes!
I’m coming into the role of Vice President – Activities with a background in equity and diversity, so I really care about making our campus events and clubs as inclusive and accessible as possible for all our students. We’ve got some really exciting initiatives in the works to improve resources for our amazing clubs & student societies who represent such a vibrant and important part of our campus culture.
Well I got involved with the Guild way back in my first year. I was chatting to my friend I had known since primary school, former EVP Nicola Gulvin, about all the cool Guild stuff she had been doing and what a huge role the Guild played in the community at Curtin.
It was still pretty active, there were a lot of people interested in what was going on with the Guild. Much the same as it is now, I suppose.
...there was nothing much there, but Hayman Hall and a small admin building, and there was the physics, chemistry, pharmacy buildings.
I’m originally from Western Australia, I’ve been at Curtin for nearly six years and it’s been fantastic. What else might people not know about me…
I was born in Melbourne. My Dad, who was from Donnybrook, got a job in Melbourne and moved over there, met my mum, and then I was born, and I spent 15 years living overseas.
The history of Grok Magazine, the official student publication of Curtin University, begins exactly 50 years ago, in April 1969, only a couple of months after the creation of the Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT) Student Guild.
I was the Education Research Officer and I was very much interested [in politics]. The Guild was all around us and I had previously been a Guild Councillor at UWA and been involved in politics there. I was a draft resister and was heavily involved in student politics at UWA, and got caught up in it at WAIT too.
50 YEARS OF THE GUILD: LOOKING BACK WITH FORMER GROK REPORTER, KATHRYN SHINE
After finishing school I was all set to become a teacher when my mum met someone who taught journalism and she suggested to me it might be something I would be interested in. It was the biggest gift because I suddenly knew with absolute clarity that was what I wanted to do.
An academic at Murdoch University is facing legal action and removal from the University Senate for being brave enough to speak up against Murdoch University.
Curtin was a fantastic place to study! It was a large campus and it had only just begun the process of beautification that you enjoy today. When I was there it was largely an environment of bleak, brutalist buildings from the 1960s, that hadn’t improved much at that point, but it was just starting to.
A trial program which aims to provide additional support to students with “on the ground” unit representatives has been successfully implemented in the Science and Engineering Faculty and is expected to be extended to other faculties next year.
Currently the music and feature editor at The West Australian newspaper, Simon Collins has interviewed Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, and Ray Charles. Nowadays, he can often be found at concerts. but back in the ‘90s, Simon’s first big journalistic gig was becoming the editor at Grok Magazine.
Tim Wallace has been everywhere: he’s worked at The Canberra Times, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, and The Australian Financial Review. He’s dabbled in magazines like The Diplomat and Cosmos, and written articles that span politics, science, the environment, religion, and more. Where did he learn all these editing and writing skills? What was the spark that gave him the equipment to embark on an elastic, far-reaching career (or “careen”) in journalism? It all began while he working for Grok and at the Curtin Student Guild.
Curtin Student Guild stands with survivors of sexual assault and harassment
