When commerce student Jamie Crowe assessed her university options at the end of high school, she found it difficult to look beyond the Sir Samuel Griffith Scholarship she was offered and the abundance of new experiences the Griffith Honours College promised.
“Going to Griffith felt like going home,” says Jamie who used to pass the Gold Coast campus each day on her way to high school at St Hilda’s in Southport.
The (soon-to-be) third year double major student of economics and finance has eagerly embraced the swag of opportunities that university life has brought.
The 19-year-old’s membership of the Griffith Honours College led her to the Griffith Business School Student Leadership Program, an open door to mentoring and leadership activities for selected students across a two-year-period.
“I’ve connected with like-minded students, a wonderful experience for me, and also engaged with different parts of the university and wider community,” she says.
The program includes community service, a leadership camp and a series of professional development seminars. “I’ve had access to opportunities I would not have had otherwise.”
Jamie says her involvement with the Griffith Business School Student Leadership Program also sparked her first interest in Model United Nations, where students from around the world come together to debate global issues using UN-based structures.
Now president of the Gold Coast MUN Society, she heads to Rome in March for what she calls ‘the Olympics of MUN’.
“The GBS Leadership Program initially gave me the opportunity to go to the Brisbane MUN and take part in an event focused on the International Monetary Fund. My involvement has taken off from there.”
It will also incorporate a trip to Germany in April for the G200 Youth Forum 2016 which brings together more than 500 young leaders, students, academics and business and government representatives from 200 countries.
The flexibility of Jamie’s program allowed Jamie to build a course in international relations into her degree and this has already paid off at the Asia Pacific MUN Conference, and in part-time employment at a Gold Coast-based business where she works as an executive assistant.
“It’s a small software business with an Asia-Pacific presence where my international relations knowledge is proving valuable. Doing accounting at university has also been a major plus. My university experience has helped to make me a much more valuable player in the firm.”
She is confident that her combination of economics and finance will reward her with a ‘rounded degree’ for the future.
“My dad was a commercial airline pilot and I travelled a lot in my youth. I learned how money connects the world, and became aware of the extent of equity issues across the globe.”
“The demand for economists is set to rise during the next decade. The importance of understanding the impact of globalisation and how the international economy operates has never been greater.
The dollars I spend on a coffee here today can end up on the New York stock exchange in half an hour.”