13 May 2022
Alumna Erin Brindley reflects that her time at SHHS ”…allowed me and my peers to figure out who we were without the same fear of judgement that I know a lot of kids faced at other high schools.”
Erin returned from the U.K. after two years in 2019, a decision made around the prevalence of the pandemic. Like so many others, her working life has consequently undergone change in response to the move to ‘working from home’. As Erin explains…”I have definitely been influenced by everything the world has been through in the past couple of years and have decided to have a change of pace. This year I went down to four days a week at my day job and have started a Masters of Philosophy at UNSW.”
Erin is one of many ex-students I have encountered who attended SHHS while their parent was a teacher at the school, Kay Elliott. When I asked Erin … Was there any particular program, person or group that you found helpful while at SHHS? Erin replied, “My mum ha-ha! …. But, also, I loved the peer support program, particularly when I was able to be a peer support leader. It helped me develop confidence in myself as a leader and mentor.” This is a program I am very familiar with as a responsibility of my own as HT of Welfare at the time. I agree with Erin wholeheartedly that it is a great opportunity to learn and practice leadership skills within a supported environment. In particular, many Year 7 students and their Year 11 leaders fondly remember the school camp where they all got to know each other and break down the barriers to friendship in a school community where so many students come from a huge number of ‘feeder schools’.
It appears that Erin has been drawn towards the humanity subjects from early on with her HSC including Advanced English, Extension English 1, Modern History, Ancient History, History Extension and Society & Culture. However, she considers Drama as her favourite, though, “I wish I’d had the confidence to continue with it.” I would say that Erin has well and truly developed her confidence since Stage 5, as her resume attests. She credits her degree with developing her critical thinking skills, opportunities and time to discover what she really cares about.
Erin enrolled in a Bachelor of Arts (Dean’s Scholar Program) at the UOW in 2010 majoring in Philosophy and minoring in Politics and Linguistics, graduating in 2014 after an interlude at USYD. She says…” I changed my major more times than I can count and changed my degree a few times too. But after all of that, I have managed to have a fulfilling and successful career and wouldn’t change a thing! I took my time figuring out who I was and what I wanted to do and it paid off.”
Erin went on a social enterprise program to India in July of 2014 which completely changed her direction in life. “I realised I could apply my very theoretical skills to something much more practical than I had imagined.” She finished her final semester of uni and then went to work for the [40K Globe] an organisation that allowed her to work in India. “My role was developing the projects that students worked on in their time in India as well as running their leadership program. It was a hugely intense 3 years with the organisation, spending half my time in Australia and half my time in India, but it solidified my interest in social enterprise and not for profits.
