As a child, Wilma dreamed of a career in business or real estate, but halfway through year 11, her world changed.
“The plan was to get an ATAR, but in Year 11 I discovered my subjects were not ATAR-approved and I was stressing – like, how am I going to get into a university if I don’t have an ATAR?” She recalls.
“Luckily, that’s when my PE teachers came in and said ACPE is a great college and you don’t need an ATAR.”
That conversation really took the pressure off the Marsden High School student. Her teachers told her that as a people person who loved sport, she should consider becoming a PE teacher.
Born in Fairfield, Wilma lived in Samoa for the first four years of her life before moving back to Australia for school. She moved to New Zealand in year 7 but then had to move back for family reasons, and found herself living in Western Sydney, just 10 minutes from the Olympic Park precinct and the ACPE campus.
“Avoiding the stress of having to get a big atar to get into your preferred course helped me throughout the rest of my high school career and I was glad to start my Bachelor of Education (Physical & Health Education) at ACPE in 2023. “It’s just the environment that makes ACPE stand out. I do have a lot of friends at other unis, and when I tell them of my experiences here, they say “We don’t get that!”
“It’s not a traditional uni with hundreds of kids; you’ve got 30 kids and one lecturer; you can go to your lecturers and tutors and they know who you are and how to help get to where you want to go to in your career.”
Wilma has excelled at ACPE – elected as a Sport Captain and Chair of the Student Representative Council in her second year and stepping aside from playing Rugby League for a year to try her hand at coaching.
“I’ve had a lot of responsibility and leadership opportunities, which takes time, but it’s really good,” Wilma says.
“I want to get straight into work when I graduate. My degree qualifies me for teaching PE in secondary and primary schools, and I’m really passionate about it now. I definitely want to get into a high school, teaching.
