I woke up at 6.30am on 15th of April with my 8 year old daughter next to me. She made me breakfast and we got ready to go to the university where she attended a sports camp. After I dropped her off to sport I went to my uni office to check on the process of my computer, went to register for a research course at AGSM and then took my car to the automatic car wash near the uni and washed it. The car wash process required upfront payment, then an automated process with keyed in codes. It took only 5 minutes to wash the car and I remained in it until finished. I went back to my home office and did my office filing and made 5 phone calls and 7 emails that were related to my project based work and to my university studies. The work I did was part of my paid work and part of my administration activities for my PhD. It was also part of my work as a mother. This work fits into my studies because it organizes my paperwork, time and finances ? freeing my time up to do some reading and thinking.

I finished work at 3pm, picked up my daughter and took her to her father’s place for the rest of the school holidays. I then went with my friend to Canberra for the week end traveling on the M5 through fairly heavy traffic. It took about 4 hours to get there (normally taking 3).

I came back to study at UNSW after beginning here in 1981 as an arts student. I have attended 2 other universities and I am now doing a PhD after completing an MBA and working in business for several years. I am co-supervised though the school of safety science and science communication – the focus area is on bullying in the workplace, which is an occupational health and safety issue. I was working in management consulting focusing on this area when I chose to pursue a PhD because the topic was not well understood and therefore, not well managed. The link to science is the scientific approach I am taking to this subject and its application though creating a safer work environment.

My paid work is through the Teaching and Learning unit at UNSW, working with College of Fine Arts improve their approach to identifying and nurturing student
skills and graduate attributes.

In high school, I was a little remote from school activities finding the whole environment difficult. I did love music and drama as favourite subjects.

Sarah Locke