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Damon lists personal value of USC studies
When Damon Grimwood started studying his Bachelor of Biomedical Science at the University of the Sunshine Coast, his aim was to “save lives as a surgeon”.
Now the former Burnside State High school captain is adding a Graduate Diploma in Education to his degree with the goal of saving lives long-term.
“During my time at USC I’ve realised that teaching, rather than medicine, will achieve my objectives,” said the 21-year-old.
“As a teacher I can influence more people to become empowered about their health and wellbeing over their lifetimes. I hope to inspire early high school students into wanting to make the world a better place.”
In the meantime, Damon is helping ensure that other USC students develop their own personal graduate attributes.
His perspective on the values, knowledge and skills that USC should encourage in all of its graduates has literally made Damon a “poster boy” for a current review of graduate attributes.
Dr Lesley Brooker, chair of the University’s Learning and Teaching Management Committee, said the ideas Damon outlined on a poster had so impressed a symposium in Brisbane that his follow-up web video was being shown across capital cities. It also will be shown at a conference in Scotland in 2010.
“He’s very mature and driven, a high achiever who’s also altruistic,” she said.
USC is defining a fresh set of graduate attributes to suit Coast students from 2010 onwards.
Dr Brooker says it includes an examination of how degrees can also enhance student values and generic skills.
USC rated the highest 5-stars for graduates’ satisfaction with generic skills in the 2010 Good Universities Guide.
The University views its role as encouraging students to develop critical understandings of the world as well as specific capabilities relevant to work.
Damon, who lives at the student village at Sippy Downs, said USC had helped him develop his own personal power through general awareness and communication skills as well as a multi-disciplinary education.
“There is more to learning than just assessment,” he said. “It’s also important to see where knowledge can be useful outside of university life and a career.”
– Julie Gatehouse