When the pandemic first hit, Megan Lamph was living the life in Sydney, immersed in the vibrant and busy world of public relations and events. However, like many others during this time, she was forced to put things into perspective.
“COVID just made me rethink everything, and question whether I could see myself doing the same thing for the rest of my life,” says Megan.
“I ended up deciding to quit my job because I came to the realisation that the thing I’d trained to do, I no longer loved.”
After spending some time back at her family’s sheep farm near Tamworth during the lockdowns, it wasn’t long before she made the spur-of-the-moment decision to enrol in a Bachelor of Science at UNE.
“UNE was attractive because I could do it online and I didn’t need to make any large decisions about moving, and I think that was the thing that was really daunting at the time,” she says.
“It was also really easy to enrol because I just clicked a button and it was done.”
With a busy schedule and a preference to ease back into study, Megan made the most of the flexible course structure and enrolled in a single online unit late last year. Still living in Sydney, she says it's been valuable having UNE Tamworth there during her visits home to make the transition a little less daunting.
“All of the resources are there, and the staff are really welcoming,” she says.
“They told me where to go for help, and who to contact for support. I never had that at the university I went to in Sydney. I lived on campus, and there were so many people around, but I didn’t know who to go to if something went wrong.”
The highlight of her study experience so far though is the sense of community, despite studying online.
“Everyone is always attempting to help each other, especially in the intensives- it feels like everyone is there to help each other and do it together,” she says.
“My previous university experience was very individualised, and if you couldn’t make it to a lecture you only got assistance if you had a friend there who could help you. However, because you don’t really have the ability to make friends doing it online at UNE, everyone’s in the same boat and it’s just a nice little community.”
As for what’s next, Megan says she’s excited to see where her Bachelor of Science will take her.
My specialty is animal and veterinary studies, but that doesn’t have to be the final destination.
“As much as life experience and growing up on a farm can give me, there’s still the need to fine tune all of that knowledge to put it into an academic space, and that’s what the next couple of years are for, as well as to help me decide what I want to do,” she says.
“I chose to do a Bachelor of Science through UNE because it has so many options. For example, I could go on to do a Masters of Teaching and become a science teacher, or I could do something else in the agricultural space.
“My specialty is animal and veterinary studies, but that doesn’t have to be the final destination.”
