It was during a gap year after graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Melbourne, enjoying the crystal clear waters of Platy Gyalos beach at Mykonos, that Mia Haravitsidis had an epiphany moment. She realised her life’s purpose – teaching and motivating others.
Not just traditional teaching, but also guiding others on the path towards wisdom. “I actually got my phone out there and then and started writing notes to create a podcast of all I wish I had known while at school, because there are a lot of things I learnt which school doesn’t teach you,” she told Neos Kosmos in regards to the creation of her podcast series, The Student Space, to help VCE students navigate the choppy waters to the self awareness necessary in finding purpose.
Her podcast series releases two new episodes per week which focus on a wide range of issues from subject selection, ATARs, interviews with other students and industry professionals. The Student Space, available on Spotify and Apple, has been particularly useful students who missed out on open days and career fairs due to the pandemic.
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Though Ms Haravitsidis had all the pre-pandemic tools available to make her own career choices, she realised that what she thought she wanted did not match up to the reality of studying Commerce. “I worked so hard to get there and realised, once I was there, that I didn’t like it. But there was a lot of societal pressure, as well as from people from within the course, pushing for me not to quit so I stuck it out, and even though it was something I hated, I graduated,” she said.
“While my friends got jobs at IBM, Ernst and Young and other corporations, I took a gap year and began to reflect on what it was I truly enjoyed.”
She thought of her side passion – teaching. She tutored and coached gym while studying and enjoyed it. And as she contemplated that, while sitting on that Mykonos beach, all sorts of creative thoughts surrounding the teaching profession gushed out of her.
She came back to Australia, excited to start afresh and kicked off her Masters of Secondary Teaching at the University of Melbourne in 2020. Simultaneously to this, she created her podcast “to tell students things that I wish I knew”, she said. “I wanted to impact students.”
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Her podcast series soon gained its own momentum, and she created a community of followers. “I’ve been lucky and a few schools have invited me to chat with year 11s and 12s. I have also presented a few workshops and following these, students have messaged me with further ideas, such as doing an episode on paramedicine,” she said. “Essentially, now it has gone to a stage where students drive the episodes.”
Next year, she’ll start teaching, but the podcasts are a side hustle which she hopes to continue. “I taught myself all there is to learn on making podcasts by watching Youtube and buying the necessary equipment. All up, it takes her 10-15 hours per day to write scripts, record the podcasts, edit, upload them to social media,” she said. “It is a bit harder than I originally thought.”
The venture, however, has been extremely rewarding and she has met with a wide range of speakers and industry professionals.
“I just do it as a hobby, but I recently got my first sponsor, a tutoring company, KIS Academics,” she said, adding that she’d like to turn the podcast into a “one-stop media company for questions”.
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She laughs when asked about whether her Commerce Degree has helped. “It has taught me business skills I’m implementing without knowing,” she said. “Nothing is a waste. I’m so glad I did it.”
And that goes back to the goal of her podcast – to teach students that life is a journey. “They can do anything,” she said. “Look at me, my journey has come full circle.”
