Nardene talks about shame and support in the classroom environment (2:00)

When I first began VET, and because I’m like a shy person anyway and I didn’t have the experience, like the classroom experience, where you have to go sit in class and participate and have the assignments.  Yeah, I had like sort of a shame aspect about me, yeah.

So when I went and enrolled in uni, yeah to my Cert IV in Community Service and the first day I walked into the classroom and I was – it just like overwhelmed me because there was, like, a lot of other people there, and because I’m like a shy person and I just head straight to the back of the classroom, yeah. And like I got away with it, like not having to answer questions for like a couple of weeks, but then the lecturer noticed that, yeah, I wasn’t sort of participating. So yeah, he like picked me out and like asked me questions and I – I’d like stumble because I didn’t know what to say or what I was saying was right, yeah. And even though I’ve read the material, yeah I didn’t have an understanding yet, because I’d only just begun. 

Yeah, but like since like doing my Cert IV it’s, like, made me more confident, yeah, when I’ve pursued my Bachelor. So my confidence like grew from like being in Cert IV to where I am now in my Bachelor. I don’t get so shame and like, yeah, not as quiet. I’ve learned to, like, interact with people more.