By AIDAN KNIGHT
ONE of the more poignant graduation stories to come out of Churchill’s Federation University Gippsland Campus is that of Miriam and Kaylan Drzycimski.
It’s not often you get to graduate from tertiary education alongside your mother, but the pair made it look easy as they took the stage to be awarded their certificates in two different faculties.
For mother Miriam, this was a Bachelor of Nursing. She looked on with pride as her daughter Kaylan walked away with a Masters in teaching.
Miriam has worked in aged care for more than two decades, already employed in the health sector before returning to formal study. While she loves aged care, Miriam now feels new doors have opened since Kaylan convinced her to undertake her bachelors.
“I’d love to stay in aged care, but I want to expand my horizon a little bit more,” she said.
It was during her Federation University studies (first in criminal justice and later in teaching) that Kaylan began encouraging her mum to take the next step in her nursing career and realise her long-held dream of enrolling in the Bachelor of Nursing.
“Mum has been an aged care nurse for my whole life, and knowing she always wanted to do something more, I finally decided to take her to open day and then helped her with her course application,” Kaylan said.
Kaylan first became interested in teaching after volunteering at her former primary school while still in high school. A second volunteer experience at a local primary school as a part of her criminal justice degree confirmed her decision.
“I phoned mum and said, ‘I want to be a teacher’,” she said.
“It was amazing being back in the classroom after falling in love with it during my first volunteer experience. Seeing the smiles, the conversations you hear and the things the children do, it brings me so much joy.”
After completing her Bachelor of Criminal Justice, Kaylan went on to study teaching and is now working at Lowanna College.
“I love the culture, community and environment. I feel very supported,” she said.
“I’m so proud to be sharing this experience with mum, getting ready together and sharing photos to celebrate our years of hard work.”
Speaking at graduation, Miriam described the experience of crossing the stage together as “amazing, absolutely fantastic”. To make that moment possible, Kaylan even rearranged her plans so they could be in the same ceremony.
“I actually changed all of my institute – I was supposed to be this afternoon,” she said. “But I didn’t want to do a different ceremony”.
After years of encouragement and support, both mother and daughter say they are proud to be sharing the milestone and celebrating their hard work together.
