Kathy Sewell | Content Coordinator, Student Connect

How long have you been at Macquarie?
I started at Macquarie in 2007 in IT Services (then Informatics now Information Technology) as a Customer Relationship Manager until 2010. Since then I’ve worked on a variety of projects over the last few years – iLearn, AskMQ/Tracker, the Curriculum Renewal, and now, a Content Coordinator. This diversity means I have managed to gain a broad view of the University and its activities and liaise with staff members from many areas of business.

If you weren’t a Content Coordinator, what would you be?
My mum had a stroke last year that impacted the speech and cognition part of her brain. I spent a lot of time helping her with homework/exercises set by her speech pathologist – her determination and our work together was a big part of her recovery. There must be many people who don’t have family/friends to help them in the way I did with Mum, so when I’m no longer in the work force I would like do volunteer work to help people affected by aphasia.

How do you get to campus?
I drive here each day. Finding shortcuts and ways to beat the traffic snarls and speed up my trip to work is my daily mission.

What was your earliest childhood career aspiration?
I didn’t have a ‘career aspiration’, but I did tell my mother I wasn’t going to work in an office. Offices are boring and quiet. But if that was a career aspiration, I’ve certainly achieved it – I have never worked in a boring, quiet office! In part due to the companies I’ve worked for and probably because I’m not a quiet person myself. Working with Student Connect, writing material and looking after communications in the Student Connect/Student Admin area is never boring, and the atmosphere in MUSE is so vibrant and engaging. It’s a buzz to walk in here every day and work with these teams.

What is your favourite film, book or TV show?
A real go-to book for me is A Town Like Alice by Neville Shute. I just love it.

What is the one piece of technology you can’t live without?
I’m addicted to my tablet. There, I’ve said it.

What would you want to learn if given the chance to learn it instantly?
You didn’t say one thing only so, psychology, piano and languages.

Something not many people know about me is . . .
I love cooking so people assume I like ‘reality TV’ cooking shows. Notice the inverted commas? Truth is, I can’t stand them.

If money were no object, what would you like to achieve?
Is this the bit where I say “world peace?” I would start with helping people close to my heart, and after that, the list would be endless. However medical research (cancer, MND, MS, etc), mental health support and animal welfare would be top of the list.

What were you doing before you started these questions?
I  was working on wording to communicate with students about their fees, and putting off writing this. What on Earth I was going to say about myself that might be remotely interesting? And wondering if I submitted a photo of Elle Macpherson instead of me, whether anybody would notice.