Stories of hardship inspire Indigenous students

Life has thrown some tough challenges at Megan Darr, but she hasn’t let them defeat her.

Instead she is using her experiences to help encourage young Indigenous people to dare to have a go at achieving their dreams.

Mrs Darr is the Project Manager of USQ's Indigenous Secondary School Students Mentoring Program (DARE – Dream, Aspire, Reach, Experience). She was a guest speaker at the USQ Fraser Coast Indigenous Experience Day.

Mrs Darr told the 50 students from Hervey Bay and Maryborough high schools that they should take every opportunity that came their way.

'Appreciate everything that you are capable of doing and value everything you are able to learn,' she said. 'Education is such a powerful tool, and with education you can go wherever you want and do whatever you want to do.'

Mrs Darr grew up in a violent and broken home. Her mother raised six children with little money. But she said they were given what they needed and taught to work for everything they wanted.

Despite the divorce she continued to have a strong relationship with both parents. Along with a non-Indigenous teacher she’d met at high school, her parents were her mentors.

She was school captain and represented the Darling Downs at the National Youth Forum in Canberra. She went to USQ to study journalism and dreamt of being a writer for Rolling Stone Magazine.

She got a business administration traineeship and worked at a primary school. She got married and had two sons, Ben and William. But then her journey took a turn for the worst. Both of the boys were diagnosed with autism.

'This means they will struggle with the basics that we take for granted,' she said. 'My eldest son is now 10 and only has maybe a dozen words in his vocabulary and still requires full assistance with everything. My youngest is almost seven and has no verbal language.

'I could have done the poor me thing and wondered why all of this was happening, or I could rise above it. I chose to rise above it.'

Mrs Darr devotes her life to her family and to her new position as the DARE project manager.

DARE will provide USQ students as mentors to Indigenous high school students, encouraging them to raise their aspirations to consider higher education.

USQ Fraser Coast Executive Officer (Indigenous Development) Chrissie Young said all the speakers were inspirational to the students. She said the Regional Director of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Services, Department of Communities, Manny Hegarty spoke about how his mother was his inspiration to achieve personal bests in both his professional and private life.

The Indigenous Business Consultant from Wide Bay Institute of TAFE, Kerry-Ann Cowra, spoke about growing up with a single mother who instilled the value of education into the family.

Urangan High Head of Department (Health and Physical Education) Shane Bird highlighted the importance of setting goals and how it was vital to take small steps toward reaching them.

During the day students toured the campus and library and attended lectures to learn about programs on offer at USQ, student services and careers information.