The power of youth
Highlights
ACU graduate Nicola Parkes has dedicated her career to empowering young people and supporting refugees in Australia and overseas.
- Her youth work studies inspired a lifelong commitment to advocacy, inclusion and creating opportunities for others.
- Nicola's story shows how compassion, global experience and purpose can drive meaningful community impact."
Nicola Parkes stumbled into a youth work career by chance and has since dedicated her life to supporting people with refugee experiences from Melbourne to Malawi. While she’s already contributed much to young people facing disadvantage, Nicola says she’s just getting started.
“I know what it sounds like, but all I did was read a little blurb about studying youth work at ACU, just a few sentences, and that was it. I knew it was for me,” said Nicola.
While this year’s Young Alumni of the Year award winner readily admits to knowing little about the realities of a youth work career when she began her studies, Nicola’s passion for helping people began while she was still in high school.
“I went to a fairly progressive and inclusive school in a low socio-economic area in Brisbane. I was exposed to a lot of disadvantage,” she said. “This got me thinking about a career working with people.”
Nicola’s youth work studies proved to be a huge adjustment and she admits to realising she had been quite sheltered in her younger years.
“It was only once the degree started that I understood how lucky I was to have such a supportive family and home environment.
I felt overwhelmed by my privilege and the power imbalance that existed in society,” she said.
“Learning about people seeking asylum and the multitude of people living in refugee camps gave me a strong desire to advocate for systematic change.”
After her final exam in the last year of her course, Nicola began work the very next day as a full-time multicultural youth worker.
While Nicola found this type of youth work challenging, she knew a job supporting people with a refugee experience was where she was meant to be. Soon, she was in a new position with Access Community Services and was back to helping newly arrived young people and families navigate life in Australia.
But while she was helping others settle into their new home, Nicola realised she was ready to move on from her own.
