International student on the national stage
Lily Salleh has used her bumpy start to life as an international student in Australia as a stepping stone to bigger things.
A third-year nursing student at Flinders, Ms Salleh (pictured) has just been appointed a member of the national executive of the Council for International Students Australia (CISA). CISA is the peak representative body for some 400,000 overseas students resident in Australia. Ms Salleh is the first South Australian student to hold a position on the CISA executive.
Arriving in Adelaide from Singapore in February 2012, Ms Salleh’s first impressions of Australia were marred when she found that the room in a private house she had arranged to occupy had been given away to another student.
She eventually resolved her difficulties by moving into accommodation in the University’s Deirdre Jordan Village. Ms Salleh said that living on campus has been and enjoyable and educational experience and she has made many friends, especially among other international students.
“I’ve been getting to know more about cultures and other people from other countries – including some countries that I didn’t know existed,” Ms Salleh said.
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In May this year, CISA invited international students across the country to tell their “Australian stories” in a competition, judged by a peer panel. Ms Salleh wrote and entered a story, and was chosen as the South Australian winner from three finalists .The winning students from each State were guests at the CISA National Conference in Sydney in May, where they shared their stories with the hundreds of conference delegates.
Ms Salleh said that her conversations with delegates inspired her to become involved herself, and after arranging a nomination from the CISA-affiliated Flinders University Students Association, she successfully ran for the position of general member (undergraduate) on CISA’s national executive.
In August Ms Salleh will attend a week-long orientation and training course for new executive members in Canberra before officially taking up her role.
As she has no specific portfolio, Ms Salleh aims to survey international students in Adelaide so that she can develop projects relating to issues that affect them. She is eager to promote CISA and its role, and to make sure that local views are represented.
“It’s a big job and I’m not used to being in the limelight, but it will be very interesting,” she said.
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