Marjorie Araneta has begun University more than a year earlier than she was expecting to when she moved from the Philippines to Australia, and she says it’s all thanks to Bond College.
Marjorie is one of 17 students who will graduate from Bond College this Friday, June 6, after completing the year-12 equivalent Foundation Program in just eight months.
When she moved from the Philippines to Australia with her family in September 2007, Marjorie expected to have to complete years 11 and 12 before she could pursue her goal of studying at University.
“I had completed Year 12 in the Philippines, but Year 12 there is rated as equivalent to Year 10 in Australian High Schools.
“I was almost ready to enrol at a local high school to complete Years 11 & 12, when I came across Bond College, and realised I could achieve in eight months what was otherwise going to take me two years. It was an easy decision!”
It’s a decision Marjorie has no regrets about. Having successfully completed the Foundation Program, she started her Bachelor of Information Technology at Bond University this semester (May, 2008).
“I loved my time at Bond College and it definitely helped me prepare for uni,” Marjorie said.
“Because (Bond College) is a part of the University campus, I already had a feel for the place before I started my degree.
“Plus, I used to get really nervous about my essays and oral presentations, but now I don’t, because we did so many of them at Bond College.
“My teachers always gave me great feedback and we were graded according to University standards, so now I feel a lot more confident with my University assessments,” she said.
Marjorie’s success story is one that is repeated across all 17 students who will graduate on Friday, with each of them choosing to enrol in undergraduate degrees at Bond University.
“I get to see my Bond College friends every day,” Marjorie said.
“There’s a whole group of us who sit together in the Strategic Management lectures- we take up a whole row!”
Not that Marjorie is lacking familiar faces around campus, with her brother and two sisters also studying at Bond.
“My brother is studying a Bachelor of Business, my eldest sister is completing post grad Law, and my other sister is enrolled in a Master of Forensic Science.”
Marjorie has plans for further study herself, already planning to study a Master's degree once she completes her Bachelor of I.T.
“Once I graduate with my I.T. degree, I think I’ll work for a while, and then go back to Bond to study my Masters in Business and Law.
“I really want a well-rounded education that allows me to climb right to the top. I have really high aspirations. One day I want to own my own ‘Microsoft’.”
With confidence and ambition like that, one cannot help but believe that she will.