Study Early Childhood Education

I'm Dulari Gonawala, I work for Good Start Early Learning. I'm a teacher mentor for Victoria.  

So I migrated to Australia nearly 10 years ago.  I was a secondary teacher back in Sri Lanka, and when I came here my kids were very young. We came as skilled migrants. Because I already had my bachelor's back from Sri Lanka, I wanted to make use of it.  

So I did a bit of research. That's how I ended up doing the postgraduate diploma in early childhood education. So the main reason why I chose Southern Cross  

University was I was looking for a fully online course and also I wanted flexibility because I was working full-time, having two young children. When I graduated from Southern Cross University, I got recruited as early childhood  teacher straight away with Good Start, and then I was an educational leader,  and now I'm working as a teacher mentor.  

Recently I got a call and they said that I've won the national Excellence in Teaching Awards from early childhood category. Yeah, when I first heard, when I  received that phone call| it actually gave me  goosebumps, so I just stood up from my chair and yeah, I couldn't believe myself. So I was nominated because I've been doing a lot of STEM- related projects with  children, because science is my background, and also reconciliation-related activities. We've  established a Bush Tucker Garden in our centre, and we now share the Bush Tucker  products with the community.  

So my kids, they know that mom  has won something big. So yeah, I think they're, they're really proud of me.  

Since I enrolled in Southern Cross Uni, everybody who I met have been really supportive the enrolment officer, the lecturers, all the other  officers I met throughout the whole journey.  

Yeah, I'm looking at doing a Masters  in Education, whether it's something on  leadership. So once I decide that I think I'll do  it with Southern Cross University as well.