After years of disrupted studies, graduates at the Australian National University were able to celebrate their achievements at ceremonies this week.
Soumi Gopalakrishnan was among the 6000 students to complete their studies in 2021, but she nearly didn't get accepted into university at all.
The Tamil asylum seeker arrived in Australia with her family in 2013 and was top of the class when she finished high school in 2018.
However, her status as an asylum seeker meant that she would be treated as an international student and not have access to a government-supported place at university.
The ANU granted her a humanitarian scholarship to cover study and living expenses while completing a bachelor of health science.
Ms Gopalakrishnan said she was speechless the day she received the scholarship as it meant she could pursue her dream of becoming a doctor.
"I was very thrilled and happy for the future, and excited to share with everyone and maybe also inspire people to not to give up on their dreams and hopes, because if you don't see an opportunity in front of you it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. So always work for it."
After mostly studying remotely since the onset of the pandemic, Ms Gopalakrishnan was excited to be back on campus to embark on a doctorate of medicine and surgery.
"I am very interested in rural health, and also have a liking towards cardiology as well. So I want to combine both of those and do something in rural Australia contribute towards those two fields."
She said there should be more opportunities for refugees and asylum seekers to continue their education.
"Education should be something that's fundamental and should be allowed for every single person regardless of what they are offering, where they come from.
"If someone wants to finish an education, they should be able to, and nothing should stop them from having that chance to build their future."
Two honorary doctorates were awarded as part of the graduations ceremonies this week. Ken Henry was recognised for services to public policy and Melissa Lucashenko was honoured for services to literature.
Ms Lucashenko has won several literary awards for her work including the 2019 Miles Franklin Literary Award for her novel Too Much Lip. The author participated in the inaugural HC Coombs Creative Arts Fellowship in 2019, where she spent two months at ANU thinking deeply about colonial Australia for her forthcoming novel Edenglassie.
"I write in order to reveal Aboriginal civilisation to outsiders who know almost nothing about us," Ms Lucashenko said.
"I think readers understand that Australian history could have been very different if colonists had done what Tom Petrie did, which was to learn the Aboriginal language and understand the Aboriginal landowners intimately."
The Goorie woman is currently enrolled in a PhD in creative writing at the University of Technology, Sydney. She said her mother, who was "too poor and too blak" to finish primary school in country Queensland, would have been proud of her.
"There's up to seven stages of formal learning in traditional Aboriginal cultures, so I'm just walking in the steps of the ancestors by accepting this [doctor of letters] from ANU which has been so generous."
