Griffith College Dux, International Scholarship Winner
Diploma of Information Technology
Class of 2026
I grew up in a small town on Russia’s Far East coast — remote enough that nature wasn’t scenery; it was daily life. It’s the kind of place where childhood felt genuinely carefree: long stretches of quiet, no real sense of being rushed or watched, and a town small enough that everyone already knew your name before you did theirs. I think growing up somewhere that quiet shaped how I’ve thought about “a good place to live” ever since. I came to Griffith College to study a Diploma of Information Technology, and I’m now continuing into a Bachelor of Computer Science at Griffith University.
I’d spent time in a few different English-speaking countries before choosing where to study, and Australia was the only one that felt like it took the best parts of all of them and turned the volume down. Coming from a small town wrapped in forest on every side, with the sea right at its edge, Australia didn’t feel like culture shock so much as recognition — the pace matched what I grew up with almost exactly, and I’ve spent more weekends by the ocean than I ever expected to, in a way that’s felt less like discovering somewhere new and more like picking up where I left off.
Honestly, it started rough. My first trimester was stressful in a very ordinary way — I didn’t fully understand what was expected of me, I was still adjusting to a new academic culture, and I feared getting things wrong. But somewhere between trimester one and two, without really noticing it happen, that turned into real confidence. By the second trimester, I knew exactly what the structure required and how to move through it.
A big part of that shift was the teaching. Our Diploma of IT Convenor, Parjang Mojanemi, was the kind of lecturer who made 8am genuinely worth getting up for — approachable, always willing to answer questions, and clearly someone who loved the subject. That wasn’t unique to him, either; every lecturer I had gave real feedback and shared insights rather than just running through slides. Classes were small enough to actually know your lecturers, and the learning advisors filled in the gaps nobody thinks to explain upfront. Not that every class had that energy — on the long 9 am-5 pm days, you could occasionally hear someone quietly snoring from the back row.
What Griffith College is really designed to do is show you what university will feel like, at maybe 60–70% of the intensity. I remember Professional Practice being one of the hardest, most demanding courses in the diploma — and now, taking a similar course at university, I recognise the shape of it immediately and feel far more confident than I otherwise would have. By the time I started second year at Griffith University, I wasn’t guessing anymore. I knew exactly how the systems worked and what was expected of me.
If I’m honest, it isn’t about an achievement — it’s about day one. Everyone jokes that IT people aren’t the most talkative group, and our first orientation session proved it completely. Our course convenor was asking easy, low-stakes questions about our field, and almost the entire room just sat there in silence. Only one other girl and I kept answering, sometimes about things that had nothing to do with IT at all (our first-day orientation actually combined IT and Engineering into one group, so the questions wandered). That’s genuinely how I met one of my closest friends here. We ended up going to university together, and we still take group projects together to this day.
A couple of small things caught me off guard. The sun sets much earlier here than I expected — I’d pictured endless golden-hour evenings, and instead had to learn to plan my afternoons around an early sunset. Shop hours took some adjusting to as well: most close by nine, and by six on Sundays, so grocery runs suddenly became a small daily deadline rather than something to do whenever. And then the kangaroos — while travelling around Australia, I’d see them just going about their day on the side of the road, completely unbothered. The kind of things that quietly remind you you’re somewhere genuinely new.
I’m continuing into a Bachelor of Computer Science at Griffith University, and I’ve realised my interest actually sits in development— backend, in particular, at least for now. Right now, the course I’m most into is Intelligent Systems, where we build small, functioning AI systems from scratch and learn what’s actually happening under the hood, rather than just treating AI as a black box. It’s the first course where I’ve felt genuinely pulled toward a specific direction, rather than just working through requirements.
Honestly, this is the one question I never give the same answer to twice. Right now, backend development is where my interest sits, and that’s where I’d like to build real experience over the next five years. But I’ve learned not to hold that too tightly. ICT is broad, and I’m still curious whether development stays the focus or whether I end up pulled toward something more research-driven instead. A year from now, I might know enough to answer this differently.
I chose Griffith College mainly on my education agent’s recommendation — I hadn’t been to Australia yet and had no real way to independently judge between institutions from the other side of the world, so I leaned on that advice rather than research I wasn’t equipped to do myself yet.
Looking back, it’s not a simple answer. There were moments, especially early on, where I genuinely wondered whether I’d made the right call. But what actually shaped my first year was something I didn’t expect to matter as much as it did — being surrounded by people from so many different backgrounds, all adjusting to the same unfamiliar system at the same time, which made it feel shared rather than solitary. I’m glad I ended up there — not because the decision itself was well-informed, but because of what I found once I arrived.
Know that struggling is normal, not a warning sign — I was exactly where a lot of you will be, back in trimester one: unsure if I was doing any of it right, and convinced I was the slowest, most clueless person in the room. It’s not a sign you’re falling behind; it’s just part of how this works for almost everyone. A bit of persistence and patience will get you further than talent alone. And don’t be afraid to ask a question that feels obvious, or to look “silly” in front of the class — knowing when and how to ask for help is honestly one of the more advanced skills a student can have.
