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OMNIA
Issue 07 Spring/Summer 2020
Karin finds great inspiration in the lives of the children of Jaipur Omnia speaks to Karin Schulte (OE 1974 – 1987) about her varied career and her passion for dance and helping the street children of Asia.
What are your fondest memories of Eothen and why? My fondest memories of school were my friends and all the experiences we shared together. I started Eothen at four years of age and stayed until 18. The majority of my friends were also at Eothen for a similar length of time, so for arguably the most formative years of my life the school and its culture had a defining impact on me. My friends were like my extended family, our parents knew each other and we still meet today, they are a wonderful grounding force. I have fond memories of most of the teachers. Mrs Mossmann my German language teacher used to despair at my lack of interest in German grammar. I could already speak German so I didn’t see the point in learning the grammar! As I was the only student studying German A Level I got to know her very well and loved her stories about living in the Australian outback helping to manage a large cattle station. Mrs Sykes and Miss Trehane were the unofficial school counsellors, you could go and talk to them about absolutely anything, they wouldn’t judge and gave great advice. This added so much value to my school experience and a sense of trust and honesty in teachers. Diana Raine was a standout headmistress, admittedly as a child I found her quite daunting but now I appreciate her forward thinking and encouragement to us ‘girls’ that we could do anything we wanted, she said, very clearly, ‘if you want to be an engineer, be an engineer,’ and I think
she did instil that kind of attitude in me which was quite liberating. If I look among my school friends I see a similar kind of attitude and I think some of that must come from the school culture we experienced. As for memories of Caterham it was the swimming pool. We would come for our weekly swimming lessons, it was always such a big deal to go swimming and I loved it. Are there any particular characteristics or principles you developed at school which have guided you in your career? I think the belief that being female was not a barrier to doing what you wanted. This was the environment I was surrounded by in school and I think I carried that with me. I also consider myself fortunate that for the majority of my working career I lived and worked in Asia where being a woman did not hold me back. I was firstly seen as a ‘westerner’, the gender issue I felt, was secondary. What has been the highlight of your career so far? I have benefited from a number of career paths since University, so perhaps my experience is a little more aligned with how the younger generation are experiencing their career journey, with four or five careers in a lifetime. I didn’t plan it like that, but I moved with opportunities which also closely aligned to my love of travel and experiencing different cultures.
