Celebrating our colleagues: Tyson Felix-Smith

There was a huge turnout from students and staff who came from all areas of the University and people still approach me around campus to say that they still go back there sometimes to check on and maintain their plants.

In my role I try to say “Yes” to as many things as I can, and also dare to push myself.

I believe that you’re not going to learn or grow as a person if you don’t take on jobs or tasks that challenge you. That’s how you learn new skills and capabilities.

I’ve been pretty lucky with the teams I’ve worked with. I’ve been in two positions here so far: Exams and Results, and now in Student Success. Both teams are excellent. I’ve never worked with teams that vibrant, with so much energy, and so many different personalities and cultures and opinions. Sometimes those clash, but it’s never a negative thing, there’s always room to move past it and grow, which I really love. The job itself would be challenging if it was just a solo job, but the team makes it.

The highlights are the people I work with. Every morning I wake up I’m happy to come to work because of my team.

It’s probably the beauty of the role in that every week is a little different. During our peak times it’s pretty flat-out. We’re spinning a lot of plates, with everything from graduation checks to academic progress, to enrolment support, program advice and anything else. Fortunately, we’re currently in one of our lull-periods, so we’ve got an opportunity to look forward and tackle some of the bigger projects we wouldn’t have time to do during peak periods.

I have an interest in the wellbeing of staff and students, so when the opportunity opened to be a Wellbeing Champion, I jumped at it. Wellbeing is not just about mental and physical wellbeing, it also includes financial, social, relationship, and spiritual wellbeing. Each person has a different understanding and a different level of importance for those areas. Today, wellbeing is at the forefront and we’re seeing a lot more uptake than in the past from staff and students.

Another awesome initiative I’ve been involved with was ‘Eat the Rainbow’, a free fruit and veg stall which had a great impact. While we don’t know whether people developed long-term healthy eating habits or not, what we did see is a lot of energy and a lot of interest from student cohorts. I remember setting up the stall and we only had space to stock half the fruit and vegetables on the stall at once. I went to put the rest of it in the fridge and within an hour the stall was completely empty. Students came through in hordes to take all the fruit and vegetables which were worth around $500.

What this shows is there’s a hunger for produce and students want to be able to eat fresh food, especially in younger generations. When you’re a student, your diet can sometimes be limited to Mi Goreng or baked beans, so it was great to see interest in this.

I knew it would be successful as it combines two things students love: food and free.

In the future, I know there are $1,000 wellbeing grants being offered for staff so we might do a similar thing again, but with more stalls and greater volume. We found that after we ran out in the stalls, staff began to bring fruit and vegetables from home or donated money to buy more. It’s great to see people come together for a cause.

Since starting at the University, I haven’t looked back. It’s really the wild west out there and that makes you realise that we do have it pretty good here and staff are well looked after. I’m loving my time here.

Tyson is a member of various initiatives including being an accredited Mental Health First Aider, a member of the Wellbeing Champion Network for ABLE, an ALLY Network Member, and a SASHIN Member (Sexual Assault Sexual Harassment Information Network.

Writer: Lachlan Wallace, Communications Assistant

Photographer: Isaac Freeman, Communications Assistant