Souad Cheiko remembers the moment she received her offer from UTS College. So does her mum. “I was over the moon,” she says. “It was night-time when I got the email. I screamed out of happiness. Mum was like, ‘What on earth are you screaming about?’.’”
Only a week before, Souad – who dreamed of studying Communication at UTS – had cried with disappointment when she saw her ATAR. “Everyone needs a good, big cry sometimes,” she says, “but then I got onto my phone. I was looking for pathways, and UTS College popped up.”
This was the first she’d heard of UTS College. She says, “Once I was on the website, my mind was blown. My brain was going at a million miles an hour! I thought, ‘Why haven’t I heard about this?’ I applied that same night.”
An inspirational teacher
All through high school, Souad had loved everything connected to writing and communication. “I had a teacher who helped fuel my love of writing and speaking. And I’ve always been a big reader. I was on the Student Representative Council, and I had a passion for social issues. I would always speak up for those who didn’t have a voice. That’s why I felt that I should do journalism,” she says. “And the more I looked into what UTS had to offer, the more determined I was to study there.”
Like many HSC students, Souad put extra pressure on herself leading up to the exams. She says, “In Year 10 and 11, I was doing well, but in Year 12 it just went ‘poof.’ I burnt myself out. I wanted to do the best, but I was too hard on myself. There were some personal things too that weren’t helping, and I wasn’t doing great mentally.”
Souad’s favourite teacher had been a great support through this time. “She always uplifted me. She’d say, ‘You can still do it, even if your ATAR isn’t what you wanted.’ Everyone else at the time seemed to be saying the ATAR is everything.”
Making it happen
Those words came back to Souad when she got her results. “They weren’t the marks I needed to get into UTS, but I was very adamant,” she says. “I was going to make it happen.”
Finding UTS College helped everything fall into place. “It’s so straightforward. You do your diploma and then you’re into UTS. I was too stressed at the time for anything complicated,” she says. “When I got my offer, I couldn’t shut up about it. I was telling everyone. I was just so happy.”
Souad enrolled in a Diploma of Communication. She says, “I have so many memories from the College. I met one of my best friends on the very first day. We were sitting next to each other. I remember turning around and saying, ‘Hi, I’m Souad!’”
Campus life exceeded her expectations. From the start, she felt part of the wider UTS community. “We could use all the UTS facilities and join all the clubs. I remember a whole group of us would go to the UTS Library. We studied for hours while we talked and got to know each other. I’d been worried that I’d feel separate from UTS students. But we really were the same.”
The Student Ambassador program was transformational for Souad.
What’s behind those cool red jackets?
UTS College also introduced Souad to the Student Ambassador program. “I remember seeing everyone in those red jackets on Orientation Day and thinking it was a cool piece of merch. Then I noticed how they were ushering and sort of helping us and I thought, ‘I’d like to do whatever that is.’”
Eventually she tagged along with some ambassadors when they were shooting a video. “Somehow, I ended up in front of the camera,” she remembers. Soon after that, she was invited to join the Ambassador program.
“The program was a huge boost to my confidence,” she says. “It’s great to know there are people who want to listen to you. As an ambassador doing social media and panels and events, you can help people, even if it’s just one person with your story.”
Using her experience ‘to the max’
In many ways, being an ambassador also helped her transition to UTS. “I was getting inside information about all these different clubs and seeing how I could use my UTS experience to the max. And I networked with students from other courses. That’s important I think, because when you go into the real world, you need to talk to people who aren’t exactly like you.”
The program also familiarised her with co-curricular activities like Central News, the UTS journalism lab. “I started doing social media for them when I got to UTS. As soon as I started studying digital and social media in my Diploma, I knew social media was my thing. So, volunteering at Central News was really fun. I loved it, and I thought, ‘I really want to do this as a job.’”
Embracing co-curricular opportunities led to a dream job at Channel 10
From volunteer to professional
The Central News editor, Martin Newman, is a lecturer at UTS. He saw Souad’s potential right away. “He said to me, ‘You could do this. You have the passion and you’re very good at it. If any professional opportunities come up, I’ll let you know.’”
During her last year of uni, he emailed her. She says, “He asked me to come past his office, and he told me Channel 10 had a position on their social media team. He said, ‘I know you enjoy doing that at Central News. Should I give them your resume?’”
Souad got the job, and now, two years after graduating, she’s still on the Channel 10 News social media team. “I love my job,” she says. “It combines journalism and social media. Every night I watch the news and I clip all the big stories and make posts about them for our social media pages.”
Working in news media can also be inspiring, she says. “It’s been very eye-opening. I see people push through adversity. They go through things that should never have happened to them and still try and make a good life for themselves. We can always push to do better.”
Souad hasn’t lost her feeling for social media and says it will definitely figure in her future. “It’s ignited a love and a passion in me – just being in the social media space,” she says. “I feel it’s very important because the world is completely online now. I want to make an impact, to help social change and to help people.”
Find out more about the Diploma of Communication at UTS College>