If you’re a distance education student it doesn’t mean you can’t attend or get involved in the 2015 Eastern University Games in Wagga from 5 – 9 July. We spoke to one student who is going the distance to get involved in CSU’s major sporting event of the year.
All CSU students are being encouraged to participate in the games – especially distance education students like Emily McKenney. Emily is a CSU student who will be travelling from Western Australia to compete in the games after being selected in the Women’s Netball team.
Emily knew the effort to attend the games was going to be huge, but she is confident it will be worth the travelling.
“I wanted to be involved in the eastern uni games as I had heard a lot about it from my friends that are internal students here in WA and it sounded like an absolute blast, so I just had to do it. It helped that I’m passionate about both sport and travelling.”
Emily was selected in the CSU Netball team after nominating herself and has several years experience in the sport. She is passionate about participating even though she is a distance student and faces some hurdles to attend the games.
“I find it hard to interact with anyone from uni for two reasons… I am a distance student who does a uni degree from a uni in another state; I work full time, with forever changing start times/hours, on top of my studies so I have absolutely no time to interact with the students because of my hours, along with the time difference between the two states,” admits Emily.
“I’m looking forward to the social aspect of the games, making heaps of new mates and staying on campus to see what the campus’ are like. I’m looking at moving east to do internal studies, so if anything, this is a great opportunity to see what the campus has to offer. I also really enjoy sports so I’m obviously excited about that.”
Emily is also passionate about engaging with other distance students and hopes they will get involved in the Games as well – if they have the opportunity.
“In my belief distance ed students should try participate in all the activities that they are exposed to. Although in saying that, most distance ed students study by distance for a reason. For example, I work full time and cannot easily take time off work to travel to such events, other distance students I have met are doing apprenticeships or are parents and have prior commitments so I can understand why distance students don’t get involved, but I do encourage them to if they have the opportunity!”
