"Do Not Define Who You Are Until You Find Who You Are"

I was granted with the opportunity to create relationships and bonds with students from other

schools through the AUT Live My Future programme. Not only did I create friendships with the

students but I also created a strong bond with my Navigator Jean, who made me feel comfortable

through this whole journey. I was nervous at first, especially after I was told that I was gonna be

separated from all of my friends, but after I met my squad I realized that it wasn’t bad after all.

Our first task was to get to know each other and then the first challenge set in. Not surprised,

majority of my squad were full of boys and they were the loud ones, but also smart. We were

given a paper which gave us a list of things we had to do and the first one was to take a photo

with the squad in front of a sign that says ‘AUT’, and to be honest, my group started before we

were supposed to. We thought of a group name and since we were the Orange team, we were

called ‘Orange Juice - OJ’. We did all the challenges on the list, made a chant and
recorded it. We stuck together as a group and would say we created bonds also.

Thankfully, we were given a $20 voucher to spend at 2 specific shops, but we had to go and see

a live lecture as well. I decided that since I have a slight passion in Science, that was the block that

I wanted to see. I was with my friends on our way to the Science block to see the Biology lecture,

my friend was going to Chemistry and the other one was going to Paramedicine, but we were lost

and didn’t know where our classes were located. We bumped into a staff and he highly

recommended to see Food Chemistry and he intrigued us as soon as he said we were gonna be

making ice cream, if I was to be honest. He took us to the class and as soon as we got there I felt a

very comfortable vibe with the man showing us how to make ginger beer. Instantly, we created

strong bonds between our supervisors and ourselves. They really made it an experience to

remember, we created and taste tested food made with different utensils and learnt about the

things they discover through food chemistry. We looked around through Health Science department

and saw heaps of stalls which were based on different types of science such as Oral, Health, etc.

So, we went to the Paramedicine area and asked questions as they were performing CPR to a

doll whose heart stopped beating.

To conclude the day we were all placed in a lecture room, sitting with our colour squads and

we were split up in quarters This was just another activity and we reflected back on the day

and what we learnt. The things I took from this experience was how paramedics perform CPR

and how to compress air through someone who cannot breath and how liquid nitrogen is used to

harden and dense cream to turn it into ice cream. I would have to say that I judged the whole

event too early, because I wanted to go home at first. But as the day progressed, I didn’t want

to leave. I am grateful for this experience and have learnt so much. Definitely put thoughts

about attending AUT after High School and maybe even volunteer as an AUT Navigator.

Michelle Vainerere