2013 Brisbane International Student Ambassador

Debbie Lee
Mar 11, 2020
2 min read

#debx3inAUS is a blog series detailing my international student life in Brisbane, Australia.

Over the course of my time in Brisbane I’ve had the opportunity to be in influential positions, primarily representing Griffith and Brisbane city but also representing Singapore.

Being one of only a handful of Singaporeans on Nathan campus, I tend to make that my identity when I meet new people. On top of that, being able to speak in multiple languages meant I could join in multiple national and international social circles so I didn’t need to restrict myself to only hanging out with Singaporeans and Australians.

One key achievement of my entire study abroad experience was being appointed Brisbane International Student Ambassador (BISA).

When I returned from Japan in mid February, ready for my last semester, a close friend and mentor, who was nearing the end of his BISA 2012 appointment, convinced me to apply for the ambassadorship for 2013. I did so without much hesitation since I knew I had more time from uni that semester for extra-curricular activities and it sounded really fun.

The deadline was 1 March 2013 so I didn’t have much time to prepare but went for it anyway. On 11 March I received an email from Anna, the Project Manager for the Ambassador Program on the selection timeline. Study Brisbane received 178 applications from 50 different countries for the approximately 30 Ambassador positions available, making the 2013 program the most competitive to date. I knew that despite there not being many Singaporeans in Nathan, there was quite a big population in UQ & QUT so I didn’t think I would get called back.

On 17 March, Anna reached out again to welcome me for a selection interview at Brisbane Marketing. I honestly don’t remember much of that interview but I must have done something right since it was confirmed on 29 March that I’ve been selected as the 2013 BISA representing Singapore!

The induction training was held on 8 April and that was the first time I met my fellow 32 other 2013 BISAs.

I actively documented my BISA year on my Tumblr blog since one key purpose of this program was to market Brisbane City as the ideal city for International students.