Tayla Messina

Degree:

• Graduate Certificate in Professional Practice

I was raised alongside three of my siblings by a single mother who worked multiple jobs to keep the roof over our head and food on our plate.

I dropped out of school in grade 10 and fell pregnant within the same year at the age of 15. I terminated the pregnancy and resultingly decided to prove to everyone I was not a failure. I attended TAFE WSI to complete the year 12 equivalent the year I was supposed to be in grade 11 at school after not even completing year 10.

I graduated from that course and was accepted to the University of Wollongong to undertake a B Comm (Management) & B Creative Arts (Visual Arts & Graphic Design).

I studied for a year living on campus and working at KFC to pay my way at the age of 17. By the end of the year, I realised that I was not so interested in what I was studying and was struggling mentally to keep myself going so deferred the course, quit my job and moved back to Sydney.

Around this time I met my future husband and fell pregnant. When our son was born I decided to go back to uni, so applied to study a B Business & Commerce (Accounting) at Western Sydney University in 2015.

Almost a year into my studies, just before our son turned one, I secured a traineeship to complete a Cert III in Financial Services whilst working full time. I reduced my uni load to part time and continued working full time from then on.

I completed my certificate III after 15 months, and eventually in November 2019 sat my final exam for my studies at Western Sydney University.

Due to COVID in 2020, I was unable to attend my graduation, so after so many years of hard work, being the first person in my family to attend university all whilst working full time, raising our son, the first of my generation to get married and the first to buy a house, I received my testamur in the post.

I wanted to commence further studies to meet the requirements to register with the TPB so after a lot of research and realisation that I could not afford the CPA or CA programs, I stumbled across the UNE Bespoke team (Anna) who was amazing at helping me determine how I could complete further studies to meet the academic requirements of the TPB.

By this stage I was working as a commercial tax accountant and married with two children, so I completed my studies one class at a time and fast forward to 2022, FINALLY I was able to attend my graduation, get the photos in the fancy gown surrounded by other graduates and finally feel the overwhelming joy of success.

UNE was incredibly supportive throughout my journey. I know my academic journey has not come to an end. Wherever life takes me, UNE will be the place I go to for academic support and further studies.