CYU Podcast - What Makes Murdoch Magic, with Samantha Ferguson
Samantha: [00:00:00] So my mom was very alternative when she started at uni. She was, um, she dressed in like a gothic style and she was, you know. Someone that she felt like she didn't really fit in anywhere and she came here and she had such an amazing experience. And when I came here, I had that exact same feeling.
Rob: Good day and welcome to the Choosing Your Uni podcast.
I'm your host, Rob Malki, coming to you today from WA Jack Nunga country in Perth, in Western Australia. And I'm really pumped to back on the campus of Murdoch University and to be sitting in what's quite honestly a spectacular. New building since the last time I visited the Buller Catagen building. And joining me today is Sam, who's from the news and communications team.
Thanks for joining me, Sam, on the podcast. Thank you for having me. Maybe this is an extraordinary space we're sitting in. I remember seeing the announcement when it came. Tell me a little bit about the baller catagen. [00:01:00]
Samantha: So baller Catagen, which is the noga term for like a place of learning and meeting and learning.
It is one of the most beautiful buildings. Also one best academic building earlier this year. But basically this building kind of represents a few key things. For Murdoch. So things like, we are really passionate about sustainability and we're really passionate about amplifying first nations voices and spaces.
So this building's made out of recycled timber. That's, and it is the largest building, I believe, on a university campus. And it is
Rob: made of timber, I'm assuming.
Samantha: Made of, yeah, made of timber. Yes. And it. Is kind of a multipurpose space. So we have obviously cafes and we have restaurants and things in here, but we've got tons of study areas and breakout rooms, which I think that has been such a highlight of this space because it's a place where you can come and you can sit in, you know, a beautiful breakout room with, you know, [00:02:00] friends, colleagues, but you also get a view of the belia wetlands, which is one of the most beautiful places, I think, in wa.
So we've got that beautiful. Uh, vision of country, and we also have. This kind of high tech space where we've got interactive learning screens and lectures are given in here. So it's kind of a massive multipurpose hub. And you'll see people in here all year round, even when it's a break or even when there's exams on.
Like this is kind of the heart now of Murdoch, I think.
Rob: And that's saying something because the Bush court, of course, which is that incredible central courtyard, one of the most lovely central courtyards of all the universities in Australia, in my opinion. Um, that's obviously been the center, center and beating heart of Murdoch.
So for it to, I mean, it's just shifted around the corner. It hasn't shifted very far. But, uh, you know, once you're sitting in here, and this is, this description's for people who are listening to this rather than looking on video. But I mean, the wood paneling is, is utterly magnificent. These huge beams holding up the wood.
There's so much, um. Empty space. You know, really high ceilings. It's [00:03:00] glass everywhere, so it's flooded with natural light where we're sitting up on the fourth floor. I'm sort of looking down through some windows. I can see. Students all chilling around this like dark paneled wood area, lovely chairs.
They're just doing some work hanging out together, uh, and studying. It's got just this awesome vibe. Um, and I just love the sort of connection to country that's so important in where we're up to, I think in Australian, um. In Australian society right now. So hats off to Murdoch for investing in such a great space.
Samantha: It is such a beautiful space and something I also wanted to mention is, so on this fourth floor where we're sitting right now, which is just got the most beautiful view, we have an event space called the Dr. Rosemary Vandenberg room named after Dr. Rosemary Vandenberg, who was an amazing. Academic Aboriginal academic, and she is actually the grandmother of our pro vice Chancellor of First Nations Chanel Vandenberg.
And it is such a beautiful space and the space is overlooking that [00:04:00] beautiful wetlands and it's such a beautiful ode to her. And she's someone, so she taught for a while at our bridging course, K Track and. It is such an ode to her as a trailblazer, as a matriarch, as all of these things, and it's so nice to feel like that kind of energy incorporated into this building as well.
Rob: Yeah. It's like connection back to back to country. I mean, we're so fortunate in this country to have. 60,000 plus years of Indigenous First Nation, the longest continuous culture in Australia, in, in, in the world. Sorry, I I stand corrected in the world. And, um, to, to have that is, is so valuable. So it's great to see that, that coming to the fore.
Lemme jump in on something you just mentioned there. K Track. What's that?
Samantha: So K Track is bridging course for Aboriginal students and it is, uh, part of Ardi Aboriginal Center. Uh, and we have such amazing academics working there and. They also, we also have School of Indigenous Knowledges, which is offering a [00:05:00] minor in indigenous knowledges and a co-major at the moment, and that is really bringing in this kind of amazing knowledge, which is again, more than 60,000 years old.
Different ways of learning and communicating with each other and passing on that knowledge. It's such an amazing space and. Ardi. Actually I have a great story about Ardi. So our Dean of Indigenous Knowledges, Jenna Woods, she, uh, arrived at ARDI when she was 19 and she was a mother that was escaping family violence and she, uh, went into ARDI and.
Did such an amazing job there and she's now our Dean of Indigenous Knowledges, and she said that they call K Bari at Nan's house. So it feels like you are coming home, and it's a place where Aboriginal students can connect with each other, connect to country, connect with their culture, and [00:06:00] it's just such a beautiful space.
Like when you go down to K Body. It's everyone's favorite place to be because it's just such a beautiful energy and such Yeah. A special place for learning. So that's one of our, our best kind of places on campus.
Rob: Perfect. What about other pathways to Murdoch? So, we'll, so we'll, we'll get into the, the guts of areas of strength and all that kind of good stuff in, in a moment.
Particularly interested to dive into, you know, we, the research is going on. I really, ah, we'll talk more about research in a sec, but since it's come up as sort of pathways to Yeah. To uni for those students who maybe aren't gonna hit. The ATAR that they want. Mm-hmm. What are some of the alternative options for them in terms of getting in here?
Samantha: We have quite a few. I actually went through one myself, so I went through On Track, which is a post grad. So once you've finished, you can sign up and it is like a uni prep course that goes over a certain period of time, and then you get entry into the degree of your choice. There's obviously some places that are limited, so.
They, you have to kind of work a little bit around some of those courses, [00:07:00] but once you've finished on track, you go in and what I think is great about On Track is it prepares you, it shifts you into a uni mindset. You come out, especially if you're out of, you're just out of school. If you go into On Track, you're not in uniforms.
You're not being like micromanaged and hounded for your assignments. You have to independently work and they teach you really core skills like referencing, which I don't know about. I mean my, maybe my high school was just a little bit different in that space, but I was so under prepared when I got here and that was kind of like, not only was it a great introduction to uni life to campus, you know, I, I started my first year of uni knowing the campus really well because of On Track.
But it was also just, it got me into a space where I was ready to. Undertake my first year and do those assignments. So On Track is one of our courses. We also have Flexi Track, flexi Track High and Learning for Tomorrow. So those two courses are high school, so you can start in high school. Oh, cool. Yeah, [00:08:00] so that's um, they're great courses as well.
And obviously we have K Track and we also have like a life experience based entry program as well. Yeah. So we have an alternative pathways. Portion of our website that has all the different ones, and it will tell you which one kind of suits you best on track, is the one that will suit most people that have finished high school and maybe aren't happy with their atar.
Or even if the stress of ATAR has really, 'cause I, I totally empathize with that. The stress of ATAR is quite intense and sometimes they, people don't tell you that there are other ways to get into uni, that it's not the be all and end all. And if you don't get the result that you. Desired that you can still get here.
So we have a lot of flexible pathway options and that's something that Murdoch's really passionate about, keeping strong.
Rob: One of the things that's always struck me coming here is the sense of community. And you know, when we first connected today as I'm sort of coming onto campus, I'm just like, oh, I feel like I'm back in the vibe here.
Right? And coming into this amazing, amazing space is like a continuation of. Of that as [00:09:00] well, and it always struck me that Murdoch seems like that kind of institution that that really knows its place and who it serves.
Samantha: Yeah.
Rob: Is that a fair comment?
Samantha: Absolutely. I think one of the things I love most about Murdoch is that.
You know, this is something that my friend em Reman from the Equity Diversity inclusion team said to me, they said that at Murdoch, if you drop your books, there's gonna be about 50 people running over to help you pick them up. It is one of those spaces where your tutors know your name, they respond to your emails, they, you know, add a little fun fact about their day.
It is not, it doesn't feel like you are one of many, it feels like you're a member of this community and something that I've heard. A lot from working in comms from students is that they feel like they really fit in here and belong here, which is such a nice thing to feel when you come into a university because you're gonna be spending some time here, right?
Like if you're gonna do a degree, it's gonna be a couple of years and you wanna feel like you fit in here and you wanna feel like, and I think another thing that really includes. [00:10:00] That culture, that community is we'll do. Every Thursday we have a market day and there's small businesses coming to sell little pins and donuts and you know, it's the vibe of a Thursday, is everyone coming together and.
You know, some people come in on their scheduled days off or on, on their, you know, study break because they still love being here, which I think is a really special element to Murdoch. So I think that's a fair comment.
Rob: Let's talk about a little, a little bit about locations of, Murdoch obviously has a number of campuses.
So here we're at the South Street campus about 15 kilometers south of the CBD of Perth. Is that about right? Yeah. And the train that kind of runs straight down the ana freeway stops, you know, a stone throw up the, up the road here. So, so getting here is, is pretty easy. The other thing that I love about this location is like, what about five kilometers that way towards the west?
You hit the ocean. Yeah. The imagine moves in the ocean, so close to Fremantle, it feels like just a really nice chilled part of Perth.
Samantha: Totally. Yeah. It's really. And also it's really easy to get to, like the public transport system here is amazing, which is [00:11:00] really handy. And even if you, I mean, we've got lots of places to eat on campus, but if, you know, you are so close to everything, you're close to shopping centers, you're close to, you know, dentists and doctors and it's, it's a really great area to be in.
I think
Rob: if somebody were moving. To come to study at Murdoch, that might be someone moving from interstate and we'll, we'll get onto some of the academic areas of disciplines where the uni's really strong, but also from from overseas. Do a lot of people end up living close to the uni or do they end up living somewhere else?
And, sorry, this is a very general question. No, no, you can't, you can't speak categorically, of course, but. Um, just as a broad, broad sweep, is this the kind of area where people live or do they end up sort of commuting down from somewhere else?
Samantha: I think, I mean there's definitely commuters, but I think a lot of people do end up close to Murdoch and a lot end up living in our student village as well, which is just kind of at the back of our campus and is really, I mean, you can wake up at, you know, 8 25 run, eight 30 class and get there on time.
So a lot of people do utilize the student village or the suburbs around here. People will [00:12:00] rent or share a house and things like that. That's pretty common. And there are some people that commute a couple of hours. It's really, it is definitely a mixed bag, but a lot of the students I've spoken to recently, especially the ones that have made big moves from say they're, they were living in remote communities and things like that, they've come to live in the student village.
Rob: Can we talk really quickly about student village? If someone did want to try to. Stay on campus. You know, I'm a big advocate nowadays. Sorry, I'm, I'm going all over the place here. But, you know, for years I was just like, oh, why would you live on campus? And I totally shifted on that a couple of years ago, and I'm just like.
That's actually the best way to experience uni in my view. I think I was kind of like put off by that kind of classic American stereotype of a college experience, and in fact, living on campus gives you so much more. It's not just party, party, party. Some people do a little bit of that, but it's definitely not necessarily the flavor and I've become a big advocate for it just to really get into the uni experience.
If, if that's your drive, if somebody were interested in. Coming and living on campus. [00:13:00] Where would they find out more about that?
Samantha: So that would also be, so we've got a section of our website about that. So if they were just to search Student Village Murdoch Uni, it would take them to a landing page where they could learn a little bit more about that experience.
Rob: I've just seen the, like I've talked to so many people who just said it's one of those things that defined their life. You know, particularly people may who, who needed some help with the transition. Yeah. Instant readymade community, able to engage the The five minute walk to class. Exactly. Can't complain
Samantha: about that.
Exactly. And I think the other thing is, I was speak speaking to a few of our, we've got some students that are part of a new scholarship that we've got called the Brighter Futures Program. So one of those students, I was chatting with her about her transition to Murdoch and she did move. It's the first time, and a lot of these students, it's their first time living outta home.
So it's moving in. Close with other people. And this student said to me that she met her best friends because she accidentally set the fire alarm off. And [00:14:00] so her and the others that were living in that particular house all came outside 'cause she'd set the making her noodles and. That's how she made her best friends, which I just thought was such a classic uni living situation.
Rob: There you go. Tip for young players. First time on campus you wanna meet people, set off the fire alarm by burning some toast and uh, you're guaranteed to have some wins.
Samantha: Instant best friends.
Rob: Instant best friends. Yeah. How good's that? Good day. It's Rob here.
Samantha: Hey, are you
Rob: parent or a carer of a student that's thinking of going to uni in the years ahead?
Did you know that choosing Your Uni has a whole bunch of resources adjust for people like you? And you can find those at Parents dot Choosing your uni.com. You're gonna find things like links to our Facebook community, downloadable worksheets and heaps of advice by parents, for parents. It's all the sort of stuff that you need to help guide your student on their journey to uni and beyond.
Check it out now, parents dot Choosing your uni.com. Let's maybe [00:15:00] segue into some of the areas that Murdoch has really. Well known for. I mean, I've got some that are kind of my favorites, but I don't want to taint, taint your, your own opinions. Yeah. What's this institution kind of really well known for?
Samantha: I think one of the main ones, which I think a lot of people will know about is we are the only vet school in WA and our vet program here.
Absolutely incredible. We have the animal hospital at Murdoch University, tamu, and that is a running, working vet hospital and a lot of the people that are working there are also the tutors and the students get. This kind of hands-on experience where they're in a vet school, which is like they are in a working place, which is so amazing.
So they've got an emergency vet there and they've got all these clinical spaces. They've got small animals, they've got large animals, and that is kind of, that's definitely something Murdoch's known for is the vet school and just the staff are so phenomenal and so [00:16:00] passionate about teaching the next generation of vets and.
And also just keeping that work life balance and really teaching. Those skills on top of the skills that it takes to be a vet. 'cause obviously that's a very high pressure job and that's something that they take really seriously, which I think is amazing. So our vet school is definitely a big highlight.
Rob: And then that, I guess, ties into the agriculture program as well. 'cause they're also satellite campuses for Murdoch down the road as well that sort deal with agriculture.
Samantha: Absolutely. And so our agricultural, it's really funny actually because a lot of students will go into animal science because they want to get into vet.
Maybe they didn't get the ATAR that they wanted and they wanted to get into vet and they'll start in animal science and so many end up. In agriculture because they start studying the units and they fall completely in love with it. Yeah. And they then just go into this space. We've got one student who is working on her, I believe it's masters, might be PhD, but she's [00:17:00] working on edible sheep shelters and.
Rob: Okay. Pause. Sorry. You've seen that on my face and my, my, I've just had those people watching the video will see me just kind of go what?
Samantha: Edible sheep shelters.
Rob: Edible sheep shelters. Yes. Tell me more.
Samantha: So this is helping sheep kind of get through. Harsher weather conditions. So it's shelters that keep them safe and that also doubles as food.
And she just won a, an award actually for her research. She's amazing. Um, her name's Georgia Welsh and she, that research, 'cause obviously I talk to a lot of people doing research in my job that's kind of. The main thing that I do is talk to people that are doing research and she told me that she'd started in animal science and she had, on her first day she saw one of the lecturers talking and she just was like, oh my gosh, this is what I wanna do.
This is amazing. And then she's taken it so far and now she's researching in the space she's making. This impact in this space that she never would've thought to sign up for to begin with. So I think [00:18:00] that's really beautiful as well. It's
Rob: such a great story and you know, coming back to what you were saying about, you know, don't stress so much about the way in and everything because when you get here and you meet that passionate person, suddenly you realize the world is just.
Full of open doors for you.
Samantha: Absolutely.
Rob: And, and when an academic like that opens the door and suddenly it's like edible sheep shelters and suddenly you are like, holy smokes are never even knew that existed. Yeah. And down that rabbit hole you go and that becomes you. And, and that's the thing I think before you come, come to uni, you just have no concept of, of the depth that's in a place like Murdoch.
Samantha: Absolutely. That
Rob: you can actually tap into.
Samantha: No, that's, that's what happened to me. So I started in a different degree. So I started in theater and I went to a lecture. 'cause a lot of theater and literature units overlap and I feel like I'm name dropping a lot on this. But I, I went, allowed, I went into a lecture theater and, uh, Dr.
Anne Erma was giving a lecture. And I am not kidding. I walked out of that [00:19:00] lecture and I changed into the English and creative writing degree because I found her. So I was like, I want to be her when I grow up. And that was, again, that was. Something that just completely changed the trajectory of my life because I walked into that lecture theater and just went, oh my gosh, this is what I wanna do.
Rob: It resonates so much. I, I do almost exactly the same thing, but over on the east coast with a biology degree, really went to first year biology and I was supposed to be doing something else, and I was just like, these people are amazing. And basically walk down and change my degree on the spot too. So when you say that, like, I'm getting goosebumps.
Samantha: Oh
Rob: my God. 'cause true, isn't it? It's like the truth. You, you actually think you know what you want to do and you rock up to uni. You'd end up in a couple of classes you never even imagined and suddenly your entire world just will change.
Samantha: Absolutely. That's beautiful. Yeah, that's something I love ab, I love that about uni.
I love it.
Rob: So tell me more. Okay, so we, we've talked about edible sheep shelters. Yes. Let's talk about some of the other areas, the other fields of study that these institutions, and once again, like, uh, sorry. A little note for listeners, Murdoch is quite a comprehensive institution. You can study a [00:20:00] lot of stuff.
So when I say what's it inverted, commas famous for, it doesn't mean that there aren't a number like awesome areas across the, across the board. I'm just sort of picking, picking out some, some of the highlights. So what are some of the others, Sam?
Samantha: So I think some of the others, and this is. I think these are spaces where there's also a lot of hands-on learning, which I think is amazing.
So we have the triple ID Infectious Diseases Center where a lot of people that are studying medicine, biomed, things like that, they can go into this lab and they can have that hands-on experience there. So that's definitely a course that is very popular. Um, and also has that hands-on element. And I think that's something Murdoch's really good for is getting people.
Out and into that kind of hands-on learning,
Rob: because let's face it, who doesn't want to just play around with deadly viruses? Totally. Who
Samantha: doesn't wanna pick up one of those beakers and what's that? Um, but that's definitely one of them. Love it. And nursing, we have an amazing school of nursing that has, we've just started an enrolled nursing pathway.
So this is [00:21:00] where enrolled nurses can enroll in this course to become registered nurses in the clinical space so they can then go on to be RNs. And it's. A compressed version of the degree because they've already got that clinical experience. So the nursing school, and they have a sim lab where you go in and there's, it's a hospital, but it's a sim lab that has like dummies in the beds and it's got all of these interactive elements where people are, they're not stepping into their first day of work going, oh my God, what am I doing?
So our nursing school is another one that I think is really, really important to point out. And we also have. An amazing space for media and communications. So we've got, and I think this is another thing that's really great, there's podcast studios, there's film studios, there's editing suites, there's pretty much everything that you can imagine down there that those students get to use and they get to create that content.
So that is something that is really, really amazing. And yeah, I think those are some of the biggest ones. And we do a lot of [00:22:00] research into bugs. Which I find Oh,
Rob: yes, you've, yeah. You've jogged my memory on that. Yeah, that's
Samantha: true. We do a lot of bugs. Yeah. Yeah. And so we have some amazing experts. We have experts that are looking into why mosquitoes prefer certain types of blood, so why you might smell good to a mosquito.
We have a researcher that is working to save native bees because something that she taught me, so this is Freya Jackson. She's a PhD candidate here, and she taught me that more than 70% of bees live underground. Not in hives. And so I didn't know that. I thought kind of most of them lived in hives. But the reason that native bees are dying out is because there's been this kind of up uptake in either fake lawn or obviously industrialization, and the bees don't have anywhere to burrow.
So our insect researchers are so amazing. And then the last thing that comes to mind, we've got a bioplastics innovation hub. Oh, so that's with Cyro, so C-S-I-R-O and Murdoch. It's a partnership [00:23:00] and the students that are working in this bioplastic space are absolutely incredible. This lab. I I'm gonna send you pics so you can see it because it's amazing and all of the students are learning how to break down plastic, and they've got different enzymes, they've got different bacteria, and they're all trialing how to degrade this plastic and return it.
To so that it's nothing and it's not making any environmental impact. And we have a student that moved from Egypt because the Nile River is one of the most polluted rivers in the world. And Joseph Bachta, also PhD candidate here, he moved from Egypt to Perth to join this Bioplastics team and study in this space to learn how to de pollute the Nile River, which I think is another amazing.
Story.
Rob: I, I love the, um, the, the kind of mission based researcher. Totally. And, and one of the reasons I like to try and tease this out on the podcast is because I, I really believe that if you've got a passion for an area, you know, you should always [00:24:00] try and align your interests with the interest of what an institution is really at the cutting edge for.
Yeah. Because then when you go there, then you suddenly, yeah, the door opens and you know, you realize that the, the English literature professor or the theater person or the bioplastics person is your thing, but you really stumble into that when you align your interests with the strengths of an institution and that that's about cutting edge, cutting edge research.
Absolutely. Is there anything else that's come across your desk where you're just kinda like, this is whacked, sorry, and whacked out in a good way? Not, not in a bad way, but just kinda like, I can't believe that we're doing that.
Samantha: There's definitely, there's been some. Some big highlights over my time here.
We, oh, I'm trying to think of the best ones. The, the one that,
Rob: that I'm, I'll, I'll give you a moment to think what the one that jumped out at me. I'm a, a biologist by undergraduate training and. I've always loved the Marine Bio program here at Murdoch as an external person of course, but just seeing the impact.
I know people head up the coast from here up to mind blank. Holy smokes. It's the best place in the world.
Samantha: [00:25:00] Ningaloo,
Rob: Ningaloo, how could I forget it? Ningaloo Yeah. Is just unbelievable. Um, but the work that's been done on seaweeds, on whale sharks on filling the blank is, is really like world class.
Samantha: Oh, absolutely.
And we had, um, one of our research teams. They tracked the whale sharks in Ningaloo with tags and it actually showed that Ingal Lou's tourism is conducted in a way that is sustainable and has very little impact on whale sharks. So that's kind of something that people who love whale sharks and love that kind of travel and that kind of element where you get to go swim with whale sharks.
There's obviously that thought of, is this something that the whale sharks are? You know, suffering with, and this study showed that there's very minimal impact and actually the shark spends very minimal time near humans. So that was kind of a way of, I guess, monitoring that shark behavior and also monitoring the human impact on shark's behavior as well.
That was a really interesting [00:26:00] piece that came out of that school. And they're constantly doing amazing things with sharks. Dolphins, and they've really, we've got an amazing dolphin researcher who works down in the peel. This is Dr. Krista Nicholson and. I, that's where I'm from. So what's
Rob: the peel? Just for anyone who doesn't know.
Samantha: Oh, so the peel region is Manura and I think that that way, yeah, that down that way. So south,
Rob: south of Perth?
Samantha: Yes, south of Perth. And she works with the marine warriors down there, and she looks after the dolphins and she also does, so she helps any dolphins that have been stranded. Her big thing is fishing line and entanglements, and she researches those pods of dolphins and stuff like that.
So yeah, there's amazing research coming out of there.
Rob: You obviously get to see quite a lot of these, Sam, but is there somewhere where people can go to, I don't know, stay on top of? What's going on in terms of cutting edge research?
Samantha: Oh, absolutely. If you wanna read research stories, uh, so if you search Murdoch Beauty News, we have a news page, and that is kind of where we post all of our [00:27:00] media releases and all of our research, and they also are connected with the schools.
So if you read a piece of research on there and you're like, oh, I wanna do that, you can click onto the school and go to the relevant study area too.
Rob: That's such a good thing. I'm literally never thought about that, but. I reckon that's a cracking piece of advice for pretty much anyone, like if you're at high school or you know, if you're out of school, you know, looking at doing mature age entry or postgraduate.
If you are thinking about choosing institution, get on their news website, pop in your email address, and stay on top of the latest news coming out of that institution because at least that way you can really be connected to exactly what's going on.
Samantha: Yeah, yeah. And I think, and also our researchers are.
Super open to. Chatting to curious potential students. Like if you see a piece of research and you're wondering which units you need to take, which space you need to go into. Our researchers are super, super keen to have that kind of connection. So sending an email [00:28:00] is totally something that our researchers would respond to.
Rob: Let's, let's dive into a little bit about student life. And I know we've already talked about, you know, this, this wonderful space here. We've talked about the Bush Court, talked about market days. What about things like clubs and societies and other elements of student life that, that make it, you know, special and unique to study here at Murdoch?
Samantha: So there are lots of, and market day is another big. Part of this, A lot of our clubs have a market day stall, which is great, but pretty much every discipline, every hobby that you can imagine has a club or a society attached. There's a rider's club. There's, you know, uh, Murdoch Community Gardens, which they meet every Tuesday.
So Murdoch Community Garden is located near our like horse. Stables and areas. So it's a little hidden corner and it's run by Dr. Janine Sproul, who is one of our education lecturers. And every week her and the rest of the Murdoch Community Garden Group, which is made up of students from all different disciplines.
We'll go to the garden and they will pick everything that [00:29:00] they've grown and they'll sit down and they'll cook it and have a meal together, which is so beautiful. They said they never miss a Tuesday unless it falls on Christmas Day. So they gather every week, and what I think is. Really special about that is it's not necessarily all students that are in, you know, agriculture or all students that are in conservation.
It's students from all different areas that have that common passion. And they come and sit together and, you know, one girl will go brew some tea, one will fry up the vegetables, one will make a dip, and they'll all sit down and it's we, the videographer and myself, our, our videographer and I, we went down to the community garden and they welcomed us.
With open arms and we sat down and it was just such a representation of something that you come in for on your day off. That's another example of somewhere that you can go and you can be completely yourself. And people were so welcoming and so loving, and I think especially because uni is scary sometimes when you are, when you're just [00:30:00] starting out at uni or um, maybe you've moved away from home or you are, you've moved from a different country.
Uh, having somewhere that you can go and you can connect with people and you can just be authentically yourself is so important. We also have our International Cafe, which is part of the Den, and our international cafe is a place where international students and domestic students can come together and celebrate differences and culture.
We just had the festival and people got to come and sit down and experience that culture together, and that is another. Just such a beautiful place where people can find that slice of home. I think that's so important for a university to really embrace that.
Rob: Awesome. As you talk about Murdoch, I can see like the enthusiasm, right?
Like, you love this place. I do. What? What is it that got under your skin?
Samantha: So I think one thing that, so my mom went to Murdoch, so she was here, she started on the 10th anniversary and we've just had our 50th anniversary. Awesome. And I work here now. So [00:31:00] that's, and I also studied here, but something my mom said is, so my mom was very alternative when she started at uni.
She was, um, she dressed in like a gothic style and she was, you know, someone that she felt like she didn't really fit in anywhere. And she came here and she had such an amazing experience. And when I came here. I had that exact same feeling. It was instantaneous. I felt like this was a place where I could spend a lot of my time.
So I did my undergrad here, my master's here, I work here. This is somewhere that I just really love and I'm just so passionate about people that maybe don't know where they would fit, knowing that this is a space where they can come and they, and I'm, and I'm certain that they would. So I think that's something I'm very, very, yeah, I love it here.
Rob: I reckon that's a perfect place to wrap up on Sam. Thanks for joining me on the Choosing Uni podcast.
Samantha: Thank you so much for having me
Rob: at choosing Your Uni. Our mission is to make finding your ideal institution and your degree [00:32:00] fun, easy, and stress free. So if you are looking to save some time to discover more and to get personalized advice for every step.
Of your journey. Check out Tune your uni.com. Our theme music is composed by Oggi and his band flow, and this episode has been researched and constructed on Garal land in Sydney. Until next time, have yourself an awesome day.