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14 FACULTY OF EDUCATION THE UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND
When Hema Ram was faced with redundancy from
a corporate job last year she found the silver lining
and embarked on a journey to move into a “career
with heart”.
After 14 years in the banking and accounting sectors,
admittedly “chasing the money”, Hema focused on what was truly
important to her - a career that was rewarding beyond a weekly
pay packet, she says.
She is now teaching at Aorere College as part of the Teach
First NZ two-year teaching programme. Hema, 36, will graduate
from the programme with a Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching
(Secondary Field-based) from the University of Auckland.
Teach First NZ is a not-for-profit organisation that works in
partnership with the University of Auckland to attract highly
qualified, well-rounded university graduates and professionals to
become secondary school teachers in schools serving lower-decile
communities.
“When I was younger, I used to play ‘school’ with my brother
and sister,” she laughs. “But when I got older it became about
chasing the money. Further on in my career I began to realise that
I found my work boring and monotonous. I wasn’t really happy and
while my career was paying my bills, I wasn’t enjoying it. I decided
to make it not about the money and started researching what I
really wanted to do.”
Hema completed an online careers assessment, which
highlighted social work, teaching or training as suitable careers for
her.
“Social work seemed too traumatising, and training didn’t
seem interesting. But teaching... I went to observe two teachers in
different schools and knew that teaching would be a great fit for
me. The impact on the kids and the way you could make them feel
better about themselves with only a few words really appealed to
me.”
Hema says her biggest challenge was to not take feedback
personally. “I had to learn that in order to improve, the areas for
improvement had to be pointed out to me first.”
She says the first few weeks at Aorere College, a low decile
secondary school, was challenging but highly rewarding.
“I have ups and I have downs. I am learning something new
every day and I think I learnt more in the first few weeks than my
students did.”
Having grown up in a low decile community with a migrant
family, Hema knows the issues that her students may face. “My
upbringing did not dictate my choices later in life and neither
should it dictate my learners,” she says. “I feel I am in a good
position to be able to show my learners that you can come from a
poor background and still have a rich future.”
Life, both professionally and personally, is now very different
for Hema who has had to become an “adaptive expert” and a role
model.
“ I used to be quite proactive and liked to have lots of time to
prepare for different events. Now, I am more reactive, and much
more focused because I have to be.”
Although the students are her focus, Hema has also adopted
strategies to switch off.
“I found it very easy to constantly think about school and stay
in that role, but I’ve realised that it cannot be my role all the time; I
must also remember to be a partner, daughter, sister and aunty.
“Teaching is a career with heart and I do not for one second
regret my decision to change careers to become a teacher. I love it.”
A career
with heart