When Bachelor of Animation Production student Celine Seilatuw steps away from her studies, it’s likely you’ll find her drawing the birds in Darling Harbour. “In my course, they really emphasise the importance of drawing from life. Anything like people, environment, plants, animals. So if I’m winding down and want a break from my uni projects, that’s what I do. It’s very relaxing,” she says. “Or I’ll just meet up with my friends. We like to take walks or visit parks.”
Celine has found plenty of friends to share her walks since she first left her home in Surabaya, Indonesia, to study at UTS College. She says, “I hadn’t travelled a lot before I came to Sydney. Coming to UTS College was the first time I ever set foot in Australia. It was exciting and I felt lucky to arrive in a welcoming community. That really helped me open up and become more confident.”
Finding her voice as a storyteller
Her deep love of animation began when she was small. “And as I grew up, the feeling just kept growing,” she says. “I love so many animators, but I think the Ghibli movies are my favourites. The stories resonated. They expressed things I didn’t know how to communicate. I felt like I wanted to do it not just because I like drawing, but because it lets me use my voice.”
At the end of high school, Celine was ready to broaden her horizons beyond Surabaya. She says, “It’s quite a small town. l wanted to live in a bigger city and interact with more diverse people. Sydney seemed like the right place. I did some research into animation at UTS and looked at some previous student’s films and I loved how they told their stories. I felt UTS would be right for me.”
Learning to thrive in Australia
Like many international students, Celine began her Australian experience at UTS College. She enjoyed it from the start. “My first memory was going to Circular Quay for a tour during Orientation Week,” she says. “It was fun to hang out with people and get to know them for the first time. It helped to break the ice.” She says her diploma prepared her well for UTS. “The way the curriculum is structured, and the way we learnt day-to-day really helped me to be organised. They helped me streamline the way I think and organise my thoughts,” she says.
When she reflects on the most useful skills she picked up during her time at UTS College, Celine says it was learning to research for her projects. She says, “They gave us so many resources, lots of readings from different journalists and artists we could look up. And they shared different methods of gathering data and organising our information. That helped me see how I could identify vital information and how I could apply it to my work.”
Hard work pays off
Celine certainly made the most of her new skills. She achieved the highest GPA (Grade-Point-Average) in her diploma group, winning the Outstanding Graduate prize. “That was so rewarding. I feel like all my hard work paid off,” she says. As soon as she got the news, she called her mother in Indonesia. “She was excited! After that, I celebrated with one of my friends. We went out for pancakes.”
Now that she’s achieved her goal of studying animation at UTS, Celine appreciates the smooth transition UTS College helped her make to Australian university life. She says, “I think UTS College helped me settle in as an international student. When you come to a new country you face so many new things. You need to get used to the people and the culture. The environment at UTS College was so welcoming. It gave me confidence to be myself and to reach out and learn from other people. I’m less nervous about coming into UTS now.”
Ready to face the future
Campus life at UTS suits her. “You see such a diverse range of people, it’s not just the same class every day. And I enjoy all the facilities – especially the library and all the different study spaces. I think my favourite spot is the little outdoor garden at the library, on level 8.” Looking to the future, Celine is keeping an open mind while she develops her animation skills. “I want to be able to sustain myself as an artist. It’s always a concern, especially in the creative industries. But I feel like I have strong networks, and with everything that UTS and UTS College has given me, I will be prepared for whatever comes.”
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