There's been children that I've been seeing for five years.

Watching their progress in the development that they've made is incredible and I think that drives us just those little wins every day and they all add together to really great outcomes.

My name is Kristy Harris and I'm a Pediatric Occupational Therapist and I'm a Director of Empowered Kids.

I'm also a mum to three girls.

I was working as an employment consultant and decided that I wanted to do something a little bit different. SCU were advertising for a new degree called Occupational Therapy and I thought it sounded very much like something that aligned with what I believed in and what I was looking for at the time.

I had two children at that point so to leave a full-time job and uproot the family and move out of the area to go to uni was a big decision.

The first lecture on the first day I really knew that I was in the right place and Occupational Therapy was for me and there was quite a mix of people that were really passionate I just settled in really quickly.

I found the class sizes to be great and every single lecturer was so impassioned about occupational therapy that they really wanted to bring us along on the journey as well.

At the end of third year my husband and I had our third baby.

The university was really great with finding placements for me that weren't too far away from home and I was also able to take my youngest daughter to Uni with me.
The support while I had young children was amazing.

So since graduating from Southern Cross University I started a business called Empowered Kids.

Being able to watch a child that has significant challenges, work really really hard to overcome them and you can see them having really bright futures, I
think that's what I'm excited about.

My business is called Empowered Kids but I empower my own kids as well because I've seen something that I've been passionate in and I've pursued it and I just want my children to be able to see that as well and I'm very proud of myself and what I've done.