Being an ASPIRE Ambassador by Christine Ng

Hi, my name is Christine. I graduated with a Bachelor of Architectural Studies in 2012, and in my final semester became an ASPIRE Ambassador. 

I found out about ASPIRE through my involvement as a Student Ambassador for the Faculty of Built Environment (FBE). My positive experience as an FBE ambassador- talking to school students about my faculty and architecture, and running school holiday workshops led me to be interested in volunteering with ASPIRE- a student equity initiative aiming to challenge school students attitudes towards higher education.  

After applying and being accepted as an ASPIRE Ambassador in my final semester I wholeheartedly launched myself into the stream of activities and programs that ASPIRE run throughout the semester- regional trips, in-school workshops and on-campus events.

Highlights for me were the on-campus events “Uni for a Day”, “Taster Day” and “XPLORE UNSW” where ambassadors guide classes of students around the university to various hands-on activities such as making water rockets, dance workshops and watching 3D simulations and Robo-dog demonstrations. Being able to see all of these, having access to faculties outside your own and of course making friends with the students and other ambassadors for a day was as exciting for us as it was for the students!

Besides joining in on all the fun-filled activities ASPIRE plans for the students, I also enjoyed showing the students that university was a friendly and exciting place to be, rather than an unrealistic and daunting goal as many perceive. Through teaching the students this I have also learnt what it means to be a university student- to meet, enjoy and learn from new people and experiences outside your studies.

Being an ASPIRE ambassador requires as much or as little effort as you’d like to put in. I only joined ASPIRE in the final semester of my undergraduate Architecture degree but launched myself into every activity, including those held during uni holidays.

As a result, this semester was undoubtedly the most enjoyable of my 3 years at UNSW, and my only regret was not joining earlier!

Through ASPIRE I learnt an incredible amount about leadership, teamwork, problem-solving and responsibility- all the while having fun and doing something rewarding. I would highly recommend it to ALL students regardless of background or workload!

Find out more about becoming an ASPIRE Ambassador