nurturing passion
With a strong background in campaigning, La Trobe University student and teacher Lizzie Nicholson is now nurturing the next generation of young environmental activists at Weeroona College. By Brittany Carlson - Photograph by Leon Schoots Lizzie Nicholson’s staunch desire to make the world a better place developed while she was studying a bachelor’s degree in geography, learning about land and the environment.
It wasn’t long before she figured out a way to combine her strong sense of social justice with a career that really makes a difference in the lives of others – teaching.
“A large part of what we were studying was disasters and things going on in the world that were an issue. I really felt like I needed an outlet to do something about it.”
Needing to complete further study to realise her dream, Lizzie applied for the Nexus program at La Trobe University.
While pursuing further study in this field, Lizzie began campaigning for her education provider to withdraw its investment in fossil fuel companies. As a result of her important work, Lizzie was elected as the environmental officer at the Student Union, where she ran workshops and upskill programs to help others become better activists. “My job was to support all of the campaigns and the collectives that we had as part of that department. I really enjoyed the upskilling, creating a community and empowering people.” Lizzie found a strong sense of community in her environmental officer role and enjoyed helping people reach their full potential. 46
Nexus is a pathway into secondary teaching that allows students to study and work in a school at the same time. It aims to place selected teaching candidates into economically and culturally diverse, and hard-to-staff schools in Melbourne and in regional and rural Victoria. Lizzie says she applied for the Nexus program because it had a strong element of social justice as part of the criteria and course. “I had been looking into teaching and I stumbled across Nexus. It was a new program and it sounded really unique,” she says. In their first year, students work part-time in schools and receive direct mentoring opportunities and professional development. Second-year Nexus participants become full-time paraprofessionals in their school, with a 0.8 teaching load and their own class while they study.
