Exec Spotlight: NSW Manager, Adrienne Mazo

NSW team Manager, Adrienne Mazo

You might recall that back in February this year we held our annual TLG Executive Retreat. There, we had the opportunity to talk to the lovely Adrienne Mazo who manages TLG’s newly formed NSW Team. Adrienne spoke to us about why she got involved with TLG, the experience of building the NSW program from the ground up and her plans for the future. 

The NSW program began in 2018. After assessing a range of factors, such as the need for TLG’s programs in schools and the availability of volunteers, the TLG Executive decided NSW was the perfect state to expand TLG’s programs to. Since then, there have been four successful Rural Programs carried out across three different NSW schools: Glenroi Heights Public School, Moree East Public School, and Wee Waa Public School. TLG CEO, Bridget Staude, commented on the success of the NSW expansion. "We are incredibly excited about the future of TLG in NSW,” she told us. “Since the first Rural Program in NSW a team of passionate and talented volunteers have worked tirelessly to help to expand TLG across Sydney universities and rural NSW schools.”

For the very first NSW pilot program, a few TLG volunteers from WA flew over to help run the program. Among them was Nina Horeb, who was TLG’s Education Team Manager at the time. Nina recalls fondly how the NSW Executive Team originated from the group of volunteers who put their hands up for NSW’s first pilot program. “They really put their trust in TLG’s vision,” she said. “So much so that their first in-person interaction with anyone from TLG was at the train station at 7am before travelling 8 hours away for a week! At the end of the pilot NSW program, myself and my WA co-coordinator, Chris, spoke with each NSW tutor about the future of TLG in NSW. I fondly recall the energy and enthusiasm shared by each of those tutors. It was from their passion that the NSW team was born.” Adrienne was one of the original tutors that completed the first NSW pilot program with Nina. Following the program she became the leader of a team of seven volunteers who would carry out TLG’s future NSW programs. 

We spoke to Adrienne about what had motivated her to get involved with TLG. At the time she was completing her Bachelor’s degree in Medical Science at the University of New South Wales. She told us that she grew up in an area with a sizable indigenous population and had always been interested in rural health. “When I saw an ad for TLG on Facebook I thought, ‘oh that sounds perfect for me,’” she told us, “I signed up straight away and now, I guess I’m stuck!” Bridget spoke about the incredible contribution Adrienne has made to TLG. "Adrienne is a huge asset. She shows exceptional dedication to the mission and vision of our organisation and has brought so much innovation and enthusiasm to her role as NSW Manager. We are so lucky to have her as part of our team."

Nina (front row, left) on the Rural Program with Adrienne (back row, far left) and other NSW tutors

The NSW team is certainly smaller compared to WA’s Executive Team of over 60 people who coordinate programs at over 30 schools, but Adrienne spoke about how the NSW Team works to support each other. “Obviously  we’re still in the very, very early stages. Currently we all share each other's roles and responsibilities. We’re still in the process of building our program with the support of the WA Executive Team... it’s been really amazing coming over to Perth to learn about each individual team and think about how I can bring that back to Sydney.” Nina told us she sees enormous potential for growth in the NSW Program. “It has been an extreme privilege to observe the enormous growth undertaken in NSW over the past two years,” she said. “The NSW team have had so much passion from day dot and what they’ve been able to achieve with such a small team should not be underestimated. Despite their small size and the fact that TLG is very new to them, they’ve shown exceptional dedication and the success of the Rural Programs in NSW is thanks to their hard work.”

Adrienne described the positive uptake of TLG’s Rural Program in NSW schools. “One of the schools that we’ve consistently been going to definitely loves having us there. The principal really makes sure we know how appreciative she is whenever we’re there and she always goes above and beyond for us every time we visit. We also recently went on a pilot program to another school and they were definitely very receptive. They loved the idea of TLG and were really grateful that we were able to provide mentorship to the kids.” Adrienne also spoke about TLG’s overall impact. “Even though the Rural Program is only a week long, you still build such meaningful relationships within that short time,” she said.  “After having us, the schools we visited were really impressed that we had given our time to be there. Most of us are uni students and for some kids university is a very foreign concept so it's great for us to be able to talk about university with them.”

Adrienne at the 2020 TLG Executive Retreat

We also asked Adrienne what she would say to NSW university students who are thinking of signing up for the TLG programs. “I would definitely encourage them to do it!” she said. “The experiences you gain are honestly so life-changing. You might have heard about the education gap between rural and metropolitan areas, but it’s very difficult to understand it until you’ve actually experienced it. I think that’s something any student, or anyone actually, should at least have some experience of. It really changes your perspective on things.”  Adrienne also spoke about the amazing opportunities for personal development volunteers could receive out of TLG’s programs. “It really helps you build your teamwork skills,” she told us. “You get to work with such a diverse group and people...[getting to] see the impact of the education gap first hand really makes you reflect on what you value and appreciate all the opportunities we get at metropolitan schools.” 

Finally, we asked Adrienne about what the future held for her and what her vision was for the TLG NSW team. “I hope to pursue Medicine soon,” she told us, “I’ve always been interested in rural communities and my experiences with TLG have definitely built on that. I’d love to have a rural placement and potentially go practice in a rural community for a while.” In terms of the vision for the TLG NSW team she said they were definitely looking to expand to more schools and were also hoping to build on team capacity so that they could gain more independence from the WA Executive. “It’ll be great to build on our understanding of our individual roles and how we can best use that to come together as the NSW team,” she said. 

We also asked Bridget about what she saw in store for the NSW team. "We are incredibly excited about the future of TLG in NSW,” she said. “While our plans for further expansion in NSW have been somewhat limited due to the COVID crisis, we look forward to getting back into NSW schools as soon as possible."

If you are interested in participating in future Rural Programs in either NSW or WA, register your interest today!