Life beyond Radford
Becky Green
- Doctoral, Queensland University of Technology, PhD Visual Communication // Climate Change, 2012-2015
- Masters, Griffith University, Master of Design
- Lecturer, UNSW, 2017-Present
- Flight Lieutenant, RAAF, 2010-Present
- Australian Taekwondo Poomsae Team 2005–2007
- Bronze Medal, Taekwondo World Championships, 2007
- Basketball Mascot, Brisbane Bullets 2000–2003
What does life look for you now?
I'm working hard as a Uni lecturer, and as an officer in the Air Force reserve. I still play competitive sport (cricket), and I credit years of taekwondo and the flexibility you gain for continued fitness and lack of knee issues. I live in Sydney with my partner and hit the beach as often as I can.
Tell us what you are passionate about?
Doing the right thing, being helpful (it's so satisfying) and saving the world.
When you were young, what were you hoping to be when you grew up?
I think I wanted to be lots of things. I did do lots of things, but there was no room in the world for a drumming cartoonist offspinner astronaut, sadly.
What is your favourite Radford moment?
I don't think I have one: I was pretty enthusiastic about everything except Maths. Radford was my 6th school due to Dad's job with RAAF seeing us posted lots of places. The school before had little in the way of sport or anything else, so I joined everything!
I loved the school musicals, playing the drums in the school band, all the sport you could get your hands on (I did softball, hockey, ski team and was Wandoo House Captain for a bit), and general hijinks in the common room.
Do you have a particular role model or inspirational figure from Radford or now?
I don't. I think everyone has good in them, and some levels of not so good. I admire societies or groups who join together to make something wonderful, teaming their good bits together. From your local sport team, to Medicins Sans Frontieres, or grassroots movements, or ADF groups on deployment. Teams make my heart swell.
How easy was it to decide what to do in life?
I'm still deciding. I have moved from hospitality to study, to a career in museum design, to art director at a record label, to sustainable designer. At the same time I was a basketball mascot (Brisbane Bullets) and an elite athlete (taekwondo). I later quit elite sport, as it's not as noble as I had hoped, and joined the RAAF like my father before me. I'm still in the RAAF Reserves, and still love it. I'm now a uni lecturer after completing my PhD, and this may not be my last job! I just followed things I loved, and believed in. When I stopped believing in it, I found something new.
Did your further study or career go exactly as you'd planned?
It depends when the planning phase starts and ends. I certainly planned each of my careers, and they have unfolded pretty much as expected, but I did not plan or even foresee the full trajectory!
What do you know now, that you wish you'd known when you were at Radford?
That school is a small part of life, and just to take advantage of whatever opportunities are offered at the time. There will be a ton more opportunities offered as the years go on.
What advice do you have for current students?
Enjoy yourself, work hard but don't stress too much. It's OK if you change your mind on what you want to do even 10 minutes after graduating. Change is a really positive thing, and there are so many pathways to who you want to be.
Anything else that you would like to share?
I think I might have been Radford's first gay student, although I did not realise or come out until after school. Apparently everyone else at school had figured it out though, and on reflection it was pretty obvious!