Diploma of Beauty Therapy
Recipient of 2021 The Gordon International Student of the Year Award

“The most interesting part of the course is working with real clients, I have chance to chat with my clients, improve my English, to learn about Australian culture, provide them with different beauty therapy services, receive feedback from them, so I can evaluate my beauty therapy skills

Teachers at The Gordon are all lovely. I was the first international students studying beauty therapy, I was very nervous, but they are so helpful and always willing to offer extra help to me.”

Hi everyone, I’m Madihah Husna Mohammad. I came from Malaysia and I am pursuing a Master of Architecture at Deakin University. Before Australia became my second home, I worked in Malaysia with my degree in Architecture from International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). I had heard a lot about Deakin at that time, as it is a great choice for students who want to pursue study in architecture. When I first came here, everything was far more fun than I expected!

Remembering the experience of when I first stepped onto the land of Australia was that I was full of excitement. I can still clearly remember when I was picked up by a Deakin staff member from Melbourne Airport and he showed me around Geelong city. My first impression about the city and the country was that it was absolutely enthralling. It is a clean city, and has a great view of the waterfront. I also had opportunities to explore all the beautiful scenery here in Melbourne.

Being an international student, I have found no difficulties in making new friends and adapting to the culture. I feel no alienation here and it overwhelmed me because being a Muslim, and wearing a ‘hijab’ wrapped around my head, this foreign environment actually welcomed me. In fact, with a smaller number of Muslim students here, it surprised me to find out that the university actually had proper prayer rooms and there are even taps provided for us to take our ablutions.

Being an international student, I have found no difficulties in making new friends and adapting to the culture. Living my life here in Deakin, I have found that the people are very helpful and always support the students, particularly the staff, lecturers, and my classmates. When I had difficulties in my life, the International Student Advisers helped me a lot. Whenever I have problems in my assignment writing, I sought help from a study support consultant and the writing mentors at the library. The lecturers are always friendly and they would always greet me enthusiastically whenever I was in the school. My new friends here also made me enjoy my time at Deakin. The language barrier is not a problem.

Since stepping off the plane last year, I’ve learned that all my initial fears and worries were unnecessary. Being an international student in a hijab has not deprived me, because living and studying at Deakin University is very multicultural and it is a welcoming society indeed!

Good things of Kardinia International College                                                    

Kardinia International College (KIC) is a globalised school because many overseas students who are from around the world and KIC students study together. We can learn cultural differences from overseas students and improve the level of our education.

KIC students are kind, friendly and caring so when I ask them to help me, they always help me tenderly. The teachers are also kind and helpful so we can ask them questions unhesitatingly. They also provide us good education. They help us expand our knowledge.

There are a lot of good facilities for students to study at KIC. We have new buildings called “The Learning Commons” and “Senior Centre”. They provide us a lot of studying materials and let us concentrate to study.

We always use our own tablet computers to study. Information-organised society has been developed nowadays and KIC provides us an opportunity to use laptops at school. Because of that, we will be able to do well in information-organised society in the future.

We can get high levelled education and expand our knowledge through studying at KIC. We also can make friends with a lot of kind students. Our life at KIC is filled with joy.

SETO Yasuhiro

カーディニアインターナショナルカレッジは世界各国からの留学生とカーディニアの生徒がともに学ぶ国際的な学校です。私たちは留学生たちから文化の違いを学び、自らの教養レベルを向上させることができます。

カーディニアの生徒は親切で、フレンドリーで、また面倒見がよく、僕が質問をするときはいつも優しく答えてくれます。また先生方も親切で面倒見がよいので、僕たちは躊躇することなく質問をすることができ、さらに、よい教育を与えてくださるので、私たちの知識を広げることができます。

カーディニアインターナルカレッジには生徒の勉強に最適な施設があります。「ラーニングコモンズ」と「シニアセンター」という新しい建物があり、私たちにたくさんの資料と勉強に集中できるする環境を提供してくれます。

私たちはいつも個人のパソコンを使います。情報化社会が進む現在、カーディニアではパソコンを使う機会がたくさんあります。そのおかげで、私たちは将来、情報化社会で活躍することが可能になります。

私たちはカーディニアインターナショナルカレッジで勉強することにより、よい教育を受け、また知識を広げることができます。またたくさんの親切な生徒とも友達になることができます。私たちのカーディニアインターナショナルカレッジでの生活は、楽しみにあふれています。

Hi, my name is Yang Ying and I come from China. I came to Deakin University to study and I am currently undertaking a Master of Landscape Architecture. Australia is an amazing country - from the moment I landed at Melbourne Airport, I was curious about my new home.

I feel lucky that I chose to study at Deakin University’s Waterfront campus because of the incredible views and the friendly people in Geelong. Prior to commencing my architecture studies at Deakin, I studied a ten week English language course at the Deakin University English Language Institute (DUELI).

During my English language studies, it was really exciting that my classmates were from different countries such as Russia, Iran, India, Thailand, Philippines andVenezuela. I made many great friends – we studied together and shared our different life experiences with each other. The teachers were also very helpful - they not only assisted us in our studies but also found ways to help us relax such as arranging visits to the zoo and doing yoga classes together.

My time at DUELI was a turning point in my life because I learned new skills such as searching through documents and writing in English. For a Masters student, critical thinking, writing, and searching documents are all important skills. Furthermore, good communication skills are also important and having friends from different backgrounds has been a great help in learning about new perspectives, new ways of thinking and different cultures.

In my spare time, I like to travel with my friends and to participate in different activities. I have been to Lake Tyrrell, gone fishing, joined in the Zombie Show, took part in Run Geelong, enjoyed some volunteer work and travelled to other cities. By taking part in various activities, I feel like I am an active participant in society making a valuable contribution to the city of Geelong especially when I’m volunteering which involves giving up my time for the reward and satisfaction of helping someone perhaps less fortunate than myself.

I still have one year left before I finish my course and although my studies are sometimes challenging and stressful, I am confident about my future, since my life motto has always been ‘Study Hard and Play Hard’.