Lauren:
My name is Lauren and my uni is USQ.

I have four step children, they’re 19 – 15 and I also have a six and a four year old little girls, then Wednesdays and Thursdays I work full days here, so it’s very busy.

I started studying a Bachelor of Laws at USQ. Some days it’s hectic. In the mornings there was a rush in the goa when everyone was around and I suppose it was having such a big family and always having someone there that when they all went off to work and school, I would sit at home and I would get bored – I would sort of sit there all on my own.

I rang mum up and what did you say?

Lauren’s Mother:
How can you be bored? You can’t be bored, you have too much to do. Then we just discussed that TPP would be the best way to go because she didn’t finish years 11 and 12. Oh I think she’ll make a really good lawyer because she’s very argumentative.

Lauren:
I suppose I was a bit daunted, I didn’t know if I would be smart enough to do it, wether I would have the time to, you know, apply myself fully. I did one subject and thought ‘I’ll see how I go’ and then in the next semester I did two units and thought ‘ok, I can do this’. And it was challenging, and it was interesting, and it was something that I wanted to pursue.

I have a great team at USQ. The SROs have helped me work some study schedules out.

SRO:
Each student is allocated and SRO. We support students – they ring up with different enquiries, everyone is different. We help them enrol, extensions for assignments if they can’t get a hold of a lecturer – we get to know them quite well, so we know pretty much what they are asking before they even ask.

Lauren:
With studying externally it gives me the opportunity to study when it’s convenient to me. Sometimes I take my study books with me when I donate blood, while I’m waiting for the girls to finish school, but mainly at night is the main times that I get to study.

The way that the StudyDesk is structured then I can access it whenever I need to, whenever I want to. I can study from work, I can study from home, umm, I’ve even gone out to the campus a couple of times when no one will give me any peace. They’ve actually loaded audio of their on-campus lectures onto the study desk so you can sit there and listen to how they’ve conduced the lecture during the day so you do feel like you’re a part of the classroom – even though you’re not there.

Generally at the start of the semester, everyone will sort of post a bit of an introduction, umm you recognise a few faces if they’ve got their profile picture up from forum posts and from previous courses. Some nights, you know, it’s half past one in the morning and you’re sitting on there and there will be someone else on there as well so you can chat to them as well on instant chat – you know, sort of get a bit of rapport that way. They might be hundreds of thousands of kilometres away, but there is always someone out there that’s always going through the same things that you’re going through, having troubles with one particular aspect and you always know that you are not in it alone and that there is other students out there trying to do work, family study as well.

I think, in the end it will be worth it. I’ll have that piece of paper, and I’ll have the freedom to go into whatever area of law that I want to pursue. And I suppose, this study is mine and it’s something for me, umm the sense of achievement that I will have. It’s something that I want to do and it’s mine.