ALUMNI
Our global alumni connections Where in the world are our international graduates? With thousands of students from overseas coming to Flinders University to study each year, we want to introduce you to five of our international alumni, who are now making the most of their Flinders University degree in their home country.
Amalka Edirisinghe (MCBT ’20) | Sri Lanka Completing a Master of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy at Flinders, Amalka has dedicated her career to providing clinical supervision to psychosocial workers in war-affected areas of Sri Lanka. Overcoming her own adversities in life, she has become a cognitive behaviour therapy expert in Sri Lanka. ‘The clinical supervision helps to reduce the stress that psychosocial workers face when providing counselling to clients, to increase accountability of their work, and provides a platform to increase their knowledge and skills.’
Liza Fahmida (MPubAdmin ‘16) | Bangladesh Inspired by her mother, who was the first female lecturer at Bhola Government College in Bangladesh, Liza studied a Master of Public Administration at Flinders. In her hometown of Dhaka, Liza now works in the SME & Special Programmes Department of the Bangladesh Bank – the country’s central bank. ‘My study at Flinders helped me to develop my analytical skills and allows me to contribute to the improvement of the banking sector in Bangladesh. I can now look at issues through a more critical lens.’
Bridget Numarce (MClinRehab ’21) | Ghana Completing a Master of Clinical Rehabilitation at Flinders has allowed Bridget to improve her knowledge in evidence-based treatments and fine-tune her interest in rehabilitation at home in Ghana. She believes her studies will help her to think critically and engage rehabilitation patients in a better way. ‘I changed from the medical doctor pathway into physiotherapy when I saw the patient-centredness of physiotherapy – they spend a lot more time with the patients. A doctor saves the life of a patient, but a physiotherapist saves a patient’s quality of life.’
Jose ‘Apollo’ Pacamalan (MEnvMgmt ‘05) | Philippines Apollo is the founder of the Rice-Duck Movement, which offers subsistence farmers in his homeland of the Philippines an organic, climate-smart, accessible and more viable rice production system. Apollo’s Master in Environmental Management at Flinders put him on the path to this vital community development work. ‘The greatest accomplishment in my work is when I see poor farmers and households grow in terms of their skills and talents in farming systems.’
Diana Kambuaya (MEd(LeaderMgmt) ’13) | Indonesia Studying educational leadership and management at Flinders enabled Diana to learn about different leadership styles and approaches, and the necessary traits for a leader-educator. She is now the program manager and course content coordinator at the SAGU Foundation in the Papua Province of Indonesia. ‘At Flinders I was introduced to the theory of relational leadership and servant leadership, which opened my understanding of the correlation between a student’s academic performance and their school leaders. I am now applying these leadership styles at the SAGU Foundation.’
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