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Alumni Story

Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science (2015), Bachelor of Arts (Honours) (2016) and Master of Teaching (2018) graduate

I am a Humanities and Social Sciences, ATAR Geography and French teacher at Newman Senior High School. Through my role as a classroom teacher, I have had the opportunity to work on and lead the school's Instructional Site Team, where we work to ensure a consistent approach to teaching and learning across the school.

What I love most about my job is the problem solving and the opportunities for leadership. My favourite problem is how to teach my students in a way that is relevant and meaningful to them. As a Geography graduate, I love working in a new physical, and often cultural, context, and as a Geography teacher, I love learning from my students about their experiences of Newman, and helping them to develop new ways of understanding where they live and their connection to it.

The experience that was most important for my development was the interdisciplinary nature of my degree. While as an undergraduate student at UWA and on study abroad at Willamette University in Oregon, I completed units in Geography, Psychology, History of Art, French, German and Archaeology. Being interested in a wide range of subjects means not only do I have a few specialist teaching areas, but also that I am willing to teach outside of these and have confidence that I can find a way to connect to the content and skills as I have been exposed to different ways of thinking and finding meaning. Students can tell when you are knowledgeable and passionate and it helps you engage with them.

Alumna story

Bachelor of Arts Linguistics and Anthropology graduate, Jessie Gordon, is an internationally acclaimed, multi-award winning musician whose musical passions span across jazz, blues, gospel and roots music. She is a jazz blues vocalist, vintage jazz dancer, raconteur and self-proclaimed cheese enthusiast.
Jessie's passion for music has taken her around the world, touring Southeast Asia, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the UK. She has won 15 Music and Cabaret awards at FRINGE WORLD Festival and has received 22 nominations. Jessie has collaborated with local Perth bands including Sassafras, Apocalypse Lounge, The Dirty Blues Band, Perth Cabaret Collective, and the Anatomically Incorrect Gentlemen, and recently released two albums with her original music, A Work of Fiction and Best Friends.

In 2004, Jessie graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in Linguistics and Anthropology. Following graduation, she undertook an honours year in anthropology and began a PhD which she never completed, having succumbed to the lure of bright stage lights.

Have you ever seen a connection between Linguistics and jazz? As a matter of fact, many singers take a keen interest in the way linguistics helps understand languages. Here's what Jessie has to say about it:

"For me the intersection of language and music provides a constant tension in performance. There are so many interpretations of a melody that can support the lyric of a tune, or provide a counterpoint to it. I use the skills I learned in my arts degree every day to think analytically about musical and lyrical content and find new ways to interpret and communicate on stage.

Anthropology changed the way I looked at the world. I can't emphasise enough the impact it had on me. I still remember the profound revelation I experienced studying gender and sexuality, and also healing and medicine, through an anthropological lens."

"I chose to study at UWA because my dad was a lecturer in Anthropology there, and he was a big part of my choice to continue to postgraduate studies. He very cunningly convinced me that I could combine my interests of music, dance, gender studies and anthropology all at the same time. He's a very clever man."