To celebrate International Women’s Day and mark the upcoming UTS Learning and Teaching awards ceremony, we share reflections from some of our award-winners. The UTS Learning and Teaching Awards recognise the importance of learning and teaching for undergraduate and postgraduate students within the framework of the UTS model of global practice-oriented education.
In Part 1, we feature three of the wonderful winners:
- Helen Benson (Faculty of Health), winner of the Individual Teaching Award for empowering the pharmacists of the future to become medication experts in multidisciplinary teams.
- A/Professor Carmel Foley and Meg Hibbins (UTS Business School), winners of the Contribution to Social Impact and Learning and Teaching Award for innovative design of a WIL capstone subject that enhances social justice and employability for transition to graduate employment.
Helen Benson – Individual Teaching Award
Tell us a little more about the project or initiative recognised by this award…
I was very keen to give students an authentic experience that truly simulated the work they would be doing after graduation and worked to improve the authenticity of every aspect of the medication review subject I became co-ordinator for. Some of the initiatives I started included getting community volunteers to act as ‘real’ patients, using actual de-identified medication review cases and getting general practitioners to give students feedback on how their reports would be received in a professional setting.
Which aspect(s) of your learning & teaching work are you most proud of?
I am most proud of the way I am working to continuously learn and improve my skills in education.
The most rewarding aspect of being a teacher is seeing our graduates go on to have successful and rewarding careers serving their communities and improving medication management for everyone.
What’s next for you/this project?
This year I am starting a Graduate Certificate in Learning Design and I hope to continue to grow and improve as an educator.
What are the challenges (if any) for women in your discipline area/profession?
The Faculty of Health is a female-dominated one and it would actually be great to see more male colleagues working in the Pharmacy discipline. For myself personally when I started at UTS I had two young school-aged children and juggling a PhD, a teaching position and my family was sometimes quite a challenge. These days with the kids in high school, things are a lot easier.
What changes would you like to see in your discipline/profession in terms of equity and diversity?
The pharmacy profession is becoming so much more aware of these issues than when I was first registered in the year 2000. I remember it took many years before people would stop asking for me to get the pharmacist (I was the pharmacist!) because they were looking for an older man in a white coat.
It is important to think about equity and diversity not just in terms of gender but also in terms of religious and cultural background, sexual orientation and socio-economic status; we should do better and we should be always looking to improve.
What advice would you give to a woman looking to further her career in your discipline/profession?
You’ve chosen a great profession with amazing opportunities. Don’t discount yourself, always be open to learning and growing and remember, failing is just an opportunity to learn something new about yourself.
Carmel Foley & Meg Hibbins – Contribution to Social Impact and Learning and Teaching Award
Tell us a little more about the project or initiative recognised by this award…
Event Creation Lab is a subject that Event majors in the Bachelor of Management program complete in their final semester. It gives them the opportunity to pull together everything they have learned in their degree with a hands on collaborative project. Things like creating social impact with innovative design, project management, risk management, sponsorship and marketing are all pulled into this project as teams of young professionals create and stage events to support community partners.
Which aspect(s) of your learning & teaching work are you most proud of?
Designing creative and practice-oriented subjects that inspire students to apply theory, develop skills and shape their sense of purpose. Ultimately, we find that this approach builds student confidence in their professional abilities to make a difference in their communities.
What’s next for you/this project?
Like higher education, the events industry has been significantly impacted by Covid, and the ‘new normal’ is still unfolding. We are now working with industry partners on research to help shape a future where events will have maximum social impact – supporting vulnerable communities, industries and knowledge economies, and leading green initiatives.
All of our cutting edge research comes straight back into the classroom, so our graduates are very well equipped to support their industry sectors.
What are the challenges (if any) for women in your discipline area/profession?
Women dominate the events program and the sector. There are great role models in leadership positions including UTS Fellow, Lyn Lewis-Smith, CEO of Business Events Sydney and a global leader of change in the industry, and creative extraordinaire Gill Minervini, Festival Director at Vivid Sydney.
What changes would you like to see in your discipline/profession in terms of equity and diversity?
There is room for improvement for employment for people with disabilities who are under-utilised in the workforce and this is even more stark for women. I think we could open our minds more to expand our concept of ability and become less fearful about giving someone a go.
What advice would you give to a woman looking to further her career in your discipline/profession?
Network, network, network. Getting out to see as much as you can broadens your ‘event eyes’ and feeds the need for ideas and innovation.
Introduce yourself to people at events, invite someone inspiring for a coffee and ask them how they got to where they are. This is not an industry sector where you can sit back & coast if you want to go places. If you want to try a different part of the sector – then volunteer and increase your exposure to different events. Be agile and make things happen, it’s at the core of what event people do best.
Keep an eye out for Part 2 of this series, featuring two more wonderful winners from our learning and teaching community. You can also join us via livestream to celebrate the winners of the 2021 UTS Learning and Teaching Awards and Citations at the annual Vice-Chancellor’s Learning and Teaching Awards Ceremony on Wednesday 30 March 2022.