Ali Brown
Studying at CIT certainly broadens your horizons. Ali Brown, CIT graduate can attest to that, now living and working in a remote indigenous community two hours from Fitzroy Crossing in Western Australia.
After her head start at CIT, Ali graduated with a degree from the University of Canberra. Armed with her qualifications, Ali wasn’t afraid to explore her options and decided on a placement with the WA Education Department, teaching indigenous children in a remote community.
It’s not without its challenges as Ali says, "You have to be a teacher and a doctor." She went on to say, "You have to be a snake tamer and carry a torch with you all of the time." Often times, the Royal Flying Doctor service is the only medical help available and even then it can take up to five hours to get treatment. This isn’t much comfort if bitten by a snake as Ali says, "With a snake bite, five minutes and you are dead."
This doesn’t deter this young adventurer, enthusiastic and keen to put her skills into practice, she is making inroads into the lives of kids. She cried the day after months of one-on-one tuition, Ali finally succeeded in teaching a child to read 130 words.
Ali feels her role is to give the kids choices to read in life. She says they can choose to either live in the "white fella" or "black fella" culture. She says isolated communities needed more people like her who were passionate about their work.
Ali is planning to stay for another year but feels she could stay forever. Ali says she "loves the simplicity of life and it puts everything in perspective."