Ruth and Tim Bartlett-Taylor

Ruth and Tim Bartlett-Taylor can't exactly recall when they met at UNE's Duval College. It was possibly at a formal dinner or one of the regular themed dress-up parties.  But Tim was in his third year of a Bachelor of Education (Primary) degree when Armidale local Ruth enrolled to study for a Bachelor of Languages.

"Somehow we became friends along the way," Ruth says, "but I do remember, in my second year when I left to study in Italy for a year, that Tim came to my farewell party and gave me two charms for my charm bracelet. When I returned to Armidale we saw a lot more of each other."

Tim was one of just a handful of males studying Primary Education at the time.

Some people say that their school years are the best years of their life, but I disagree," he says. "My college and university years were the best years of my life.

"I needed the time at college to grow up. You have these ideas of the world when you leave school, and those ideas are completely different to what the world actually is. When you mix with different people, you see the world through a different lens. That's what college and university life gave me; it taught me about the world and other people and my social responsibilities. It was a great stepping stone to adulthood."

Ruth agrees. "Duval was home to all sorts of people from all different backgrounds; it was a great environment," she says. "My parents had met at UNE and paid for me to live in college, even though my family home was 10 minutes across town."

Marriage, in Armidale in September 2010,and three children later, Ruth and Tim have enduring connections within the UNE community. After a year working casually in the Duval College office, Ruth contributed to UNE Marketing, as a schools liaison officer. "It was my job to visit schools in western NSW and try to convince secondary students to come to UNE, which was really enjoyable for me," she says.

After the couple's first child was born, Ruth took a role in Human Resources, where she has worked for eight years, following in her mother's footsteps. "My mother held a number of positions at UNE, mostly in HR, right up until she died," Ruth says. "Several of the staff I now work with also worked with Mum. Sometimes I come across documents in files, where I can see her hand-writing, which is nice."

Although languages have not featured prominently in her career, Ruth believes her UNE education has stood her in good stead for life. "Your degree is only half of what you learn at university," she says. "The other half is what you learn about time management and prioritising and meeting deadlines and social skills. I loved learning Italian, French and Latin, but its use in the real world is possibly limited. All the other stuff I learnt has been much more useful for my career."

Meanwhile, Tim graduated and worked as a teacher and assistant principal for a time, before starting work at UNE in 2013 as Manager, Office for Professional Learning."The funny thing is that I now work with some of the people who taught me," he says. "Ruth and I both have a fairly solid connection with UNE and want to see it thrive."

We met all of our really close friends at college and our lives are so much richer for knowing them," Ruth says. "And meeting Tim was great, too.