Inspiring speakers urge students to follow their dreams

Aug 29, 2003

Rachael Pickworth inspired, Lalita Lu enchanted, and Tim Cope amazed more than 200 Year 11 students from southern Sydney and Illawarra high schools at the University of Wollongong's annual Role Model Breakfast on Thursday (28 August).

But all three speakers had the same message for the students: follow your passion, if you want to be happy, successful and fulfilled.

The University hosts the Role Model Breakfast at the Novotel Northbeach in Wollongong each year to give talented high school students from its main drawing areas in the Illawarra and Sutherland Shire an insight into what can be achieved by following their dreams.

Each year inspirational people who achieved extraordinary things at a young age talk to the students about their experiences

Rachael Pickworth was inducted into the Australian Business Women's Hall of Fame in 1999 when she was just 27 after the glittering success of her business, Gifted, which she started from the loungeroom of her mother's home when she was 19.

She spoke of the power and freedom that teenagers have before they face the responsibilities of adulthood, including families and mortgages, and urged them to follow their dreams. She said personal success was not about making money, and that young people should pursue a future based on their passions and what interested them, not on what might be the most financially rewarding.

Lalita Lu, a UOW Creative Arts and Marketing graduate, told the students she had studied another course for a year before changing courses when she realised she was passionate about a career as a designer. At 25, after several years in an exciting job as a graphic designer for an international company, she is now studying fashion design - and has already won major prizes for her work.

She said while she loved her graphic design job she felt the time was right to move in a new direction, and the skills she had developed at University and her job were proving extremely valuable in the fashion course. She urged students to follow their "gut feeling" about what they really liked when choosing a study or career path after school.

Tim Cope, named 2002 Young Australian Adventurer of the Year, cycled 10,000 km across Russia and Mongolia in 1999-2000 when he was 19 and rowed a wooden boat 5000 km through Siberia to the Arctic Ocean in 2001. Tim's passion for adventure and the road less travelled has been captured in his documentary, Off the Rails, On the Back Roads to Beijing, which was aired on the ABC, and his book Riding the Taiga co-authored by Chris Hatherly who shared the cycling trip.

Tim showed the students video highlights of the epic cycling journey, and spoke of the extraordinary challenges that had to be overcome on the way. He also urged the students to follow their passion.

"If you've got something that you enjoy and love, you should follow it," he told them.