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As well as this brief summary, I have pages which discuss in more detail:
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It is perhaps a failing of the High School system that many young minds are directed to find their life's work so early in their life, before even they have experienced much of the world and what it holds. I suspect that this has something to do with the historical basis of European (and possibly only Great Britain) society.
So, after some 10 years in the non-academic employment I commenced my Bachelors (or graduate) degree in Information Technology. I was at the time working in the electronics industry, as an electronics technician. At the time I saw my degree studies as being part of technical education to progress my career, rather than as academic pursuit.
I graduated as a Bachelor of Information Technology in 1994, and began working in software development (coincidently at Griffith University). During this time, aside from professional experience gained in software development (Oracle product suite, Unix, SQL, C, Perl ...) I also gained a deeper understanding of the core business of Academia and exposure to the specific discipline of Environmental Education. My partner at that time began working her Masters of Environmental Education in 1997. As English was a second language to her, I found myself translating and interpreting the works of researchers and writers ranging from Rachel Carson to John Huckle and John Fien (to name a few) as well as becoming more involved in Academic circles.
As someone who has had a career in developing solutions to problems, and with the premise of Sustainable Development now embedded in my thoughts, I found it impossible to observe the world around me and not wish to develop my understandings of what drove the problems I could see and what solutions could be found these.
With the background of being involved with the Academic realm fairly continuously since 1993, I thought that the ideal framework for progressing my understanding as well as steering my career path was to undertake a research masters degree as a first step.
The research topic which drove me in particular was the problem of sustainable water for the Gold Coast (my home town). This is a city which has developed in size from a population of 53,000 at around the time of my birth, has expanded to nearly ten times this in 2007, giving it one of the highest growth rates in Australia.
Prior to commencing (and indeed during my research) I have lived in a number of very different cultures and environments, such as Japan, Korea, India and Finland. My experience in all of these places both before and during my research has given me a very different perspective to both the environmental and cultural context from which to view and undertake analysis from.
This combination of: