What lengths would you go to to study Zoology in-person at UNE?
Well, if you’re 16-year-old Summer Farrelly, you would convince your family to pack up their lives and three Dachshunds and move 21 hours from Queensland’s Atherton Tablelands to Armidale. All for the chance to become part of a supportive learning community.
“I had such a good time at my last intensive school that I asked Mum, ‘What if we were to stay in Armidale?’” said Summer, a home-schooled high school student who enrolled to study Zoology at UNE online and part-time earlier this year.
“To be surrounded by like-minded people with the same interests and similar career goals is a feeling like no other. I just wanted to learn more and to take part in all the extra-curricular activities the department offered.”
To be surrounded by like-minded people with the same interests and similar career goals is a feeling like no other.
It's not your ordinary tertiary pathway, but then Summer is no ordinary student. Growing up with a powerful love of animals, they wrote an animal-assisted learning program at the age of 9, to help other neurodivergent people cultivate self-esteem and self-acceptance by exploring social dynamics, emotions and other people – all from a chicken’s perspective.
But that’s not all. This “chicken whisperer” (back in Queensland Summer had more than 20 birds) has continued to share insights into the benefits of human-animal interactions as a consultant, speaker and workshop facilitator through their business and website Autistic Perspectives.
“I talk about the care you need to provide for pets, what it’s like to live as an autistic individual, and try to bridge the gap in understanding between neurotypicals and neurodivergents,” Summer said. That has involved appearances on national television and conference presentations across Australia and internationally.
Following Summer
Home-schooling for the past four years has opened up all kinds of wonderful personal and educational experiences, courtesy of Summer’s inventive mother Cynthia, but Summer’s passion for zoology – and animal behaviour, in particular – was insatiable. And that’s where UNE came in.
“Summer knew the pathway they wanted; we just had to figure out how to get there,” said Cynthia. “As long as we followed the Department of Education secondary school curriculum, we could complement school lessons with zoology subjects Summer took at UNE. It’s all geared towards full-time zoology studies down the track.”
UNE has been amazing with its accessibility and inclusion ... [It] has exceeded all of our expectations.
But even the part-time uni classes have not been enough to satisfy Summer’s hunger for knowledge and all the trappings that go along with being a uni student. “I wanted to become involved in the UNE Zoology Society, interact with other students and volunteer at UNE’s Natural History Museum, which was impossible from Queensland,” they said. “In-person, it’s more conversational and I find it easier to process information and ask for clarification. You can be more comfortable with your lecturers, so it’s easier to ask for help.”
Cynthia, who knows first-hand the challenges that neurodivergent students can face, is delighted that UNE has now made on-campus study for Summer possible.
“UNE has been amazing with its accessibility and inclusion,” she said. “Summer needs support socially and emotionally, but UNE has exceeded all of our expectations.”
Professor Karl Vernes said his Zoology team works hard to build a community of practice that caters to the “giddy excitement” that passionate students like Summer feel for the subject matter.
“No other Australian university offers a Bachelor of Zoology, and for certain students, including Summer, it’s what they have always wanted to do,” he said. “We try to be that place where students can come together to talk about zoology, meet zoologists and even contribute to research. We actually get to know our students so we can cater to their individual needs. And it’s wonderful when we have such a positive impact on their lives.”
A supportive environment
Smaller (and quieter) laboratory groups, tutorial sessions with a focus on collegiality and inclusion, a vibrant student-run Zoology Society and alternative assessments are some of the ways the Zoology discipline at UNE seeks to accommodate the needs of neurodivergent students. And Summer believes they are not the only one to benefit.
I feel like I actually belong, and this is a feeling I have not experienced in a learning environment before.
“This support is available to everyone, which is important, because not everyone has a formal diagnosis or understands the challenges they are having,” said Summer. “UNE has created an environment that is safe for me. But Armidale is much colder than Queensland, which will take some getting used to.”
While it’s been a big family sacrifice – Summer’s two brothers also have an autism diagnosis – Cynthia says she would do it “ten times over”. “Not everyone has the capacity to move to give their kids opportunities like this, but it was important to us,” she said.
As for Summer: “I'm pretty excited for 2024 and look forward to a learning journey with amazing opportunities I wouldn’t have discovered studying online. I feel like I actually belong, and this is a feeling I have not experienced in a learning environment before.”
