The 2010 VALA Student Award for a student at Monash University goes to Debra Dorfan.
Debra is a hardworking and committed mother and professional-to-be. She struggles to manage her scarce time and resources very carefully. As a mature-age student with 3 primary school age children, she embarked on study at Monash University partly to prove that she was not too old to follow her dreams and partly because she realised that she had decades of working life ahead and that she might as well be doing something she is passionate about.
Initially her ambitions were small: to become a librarian. An obvious advantage of that would be that she would have a specific occupation rather than just a nebulous, vague statement about working in human resources and administration that was her previous work identity, which always made her feel inadequate.
After four long years of juggling one subject per semester, a part-time job, a family and a home, she is now at the end of a new road. Thanks to the Monash course structure, she is no longer scared of facing technology (including its jargon) and its implications. Information and knowledge and the management of them are the buzz everywhere, and Debbie feels she now has the skills and can tap into resources to be part of the solution rather than just pondering the problem.
When thinking where she will go with her new qualifications she is excited, because she believes we are at a new frontier, and as an information professional she will be helping to shape the landscape, and to make decisions and formulate strategies and solutions that will form the future.
Debra believes that as that future is not yet clear, her occupational choices are not totally defined and to a large extent will be what professionals make of them. On a more practical level, she aims to find a good job in a library to consolidate her learning and to get industry experience.
Congratulations, Debbie, and good luck!