‘Winter School was an exhausting yet fabulous week. As one of the night supervisors this year, I saw the best and the worst of this years’ participants, and loved every minute of it. I would like to thank all the participants for being amazing. In particular, thanks to my night group for actively participating in our elevator Jams. Every morning and night between ground floor and Brooke Street we were rock stars. The trivia night was a fantastic celebration of culture and teamwork. I am proud to say that my group, Lingari, cheered the loudest despite being ranked last for the majority of the competition. Another favourite memory of mine is Origin night- games of spoons and cheat galore were played by all the cool kids. I could go on. But I'll just finish by saying that I truly hope that this week has helped the participants grow as people, think seriously about university, feel proud about their culture and know that they will always have a family here in Sydney’ Jen Westbury Jen is currently studying Arts Law at UNSW This was her first time working as a night supervisor at Winter School. I was ecstatic to do my job and inspire all of these students. I wanted to show them what university life is like, and to emphasise just how rewarding university is for your career, life, and even identity. Many of my COFA (visual arts) students couldn't believe the amount of support that Nura Gili provides for every student, and seeing the looks on their faces at the end of the week was enough to tell me they were inspired to come to uni after high school. It was amazing to me to see these types of opportunities coming to the forefront of the students' minds. What really made me so happy was to see all of them being so accepting of each other at random moments of the week. On the very first day I saw kids discussing their hometowns and figuring out who lives close to them. I even met a couple students from my way and some whose parents knew my family. This feeling of relation, connecting through place, it's how we best strengthen our ties with each other, and it was unbelievable to be a part of that this year… I can’t draw or paint to save my life, and here are these brightly artistic, talented and inspiring kids, showing off and paving a way for their future careers in the visual art world. Rhyan Clapham Rhyan is in his final year studying a degree in Music at UNSW This was his first time working as a day supervisor at Winter School. Rhyan also performed at the Winter School Formal Dinner in 2013 and 2014 and this year was also interviewed on Bill’s panel.
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