Director, Active Star Productions Pty Ltd
BA(HumMovStud) (UTS)

Amy Wilkins addressed graduates from the Faculty of Health in the Great Hall, University of Technology, Sydney on Thursday 2 May 2013, 2pm.

Our speaker today is Ms Amy Wilkins.

Amy graduated from UTS with a degree in Human Movement. While completing her degree, she developed a children’s fitness program for a local leisure centre. With a drive to succeed and a strong desire to help curb the growing trend toward childhood obesity, Active Kidz was established.

Active Kidz is a health and fitness TV show for kids. It is an international television program screening on the ABC and Nickelodeon in Australia, and on the Disney Channel in New Zealand and Asia.

Along with her goal to empower everyone to make healthier choices, Amy is also an award-winning music writer and business owner. She was twice a finalist in the Telstra Young Business Women's Award and was named Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2005. She is featured in the book Secrets of Young Achievers Exposed and is also a National Heart Foundation Ambassador, Juvenile Diabetes Ambassador and most recently an Australia Day Ambassador.

Amy has also been a regular editorial contributor to many magazines and newspapers such as The Sun Herald and K-Zone and has featured on TV programs such as Sunrise, Today Show, Sarvo, Hot Source, and Saturday Disney. As the co-director of Active Star Productions, Amy has produced Active Kidz Series two, which featured on Nickelodeon Australia, and the Active Kidz Work It DVD special. She has also co-produced many corporate fitness DVDs for both children and adults.

It gives me great pleasure to invite Ms Amy Wilkins to deliver the occasional address. 

Speech

Presiding Chancellor, Mr Brian Wilson, Presiding Vice Chancellor, Professor Ross Milbourne, Presiding Dean, Professor John Daly, Presiding Registrar, Mr John Hartigan, Academic Board Representative, Associate Professor Sally Varnham, distinguished guests, staff, graduates, families and friends,

I would like to acknowledge the Cadigal and Guring-gai people of the Eora Nation, upon whose ancestral lands the University now stand.,

Good afternoon everyone, what a very special occasion. I am honoured to be here and excited for you all as today marks the very beginning of your career journey. I must begin by letting you know that I am not used to addressing adults such as yourselves, I am more at home entertaining children, so please bear with me and I will try to be inspiring without breaking into dance too often.

To get my audiences attention and focus, I usually begin by asking all the children if they are having fun today so, graduates, “Are you having fun today?” I get the kids up on their feet to do 10 quick star jumps, so everyone up you get! No – just kidding, you don’t have to do that because today you should be jumping for joy, you have all graduated!

Graduates and families congratulations. Your hard work, perseverance, dedication and ambition to get to this point are being acknowledged and rewarded. Families, your willingness to be assessment subjects and assignment guinea pigs, as well as your unconditional support is also being acknowledged and rewarded. You have all achieved something very significant, and I hope each and every one of you feels extremely proud. Enjoy the moment.

Today, I am hoping to inspire you to think outside the box as you begin your careers. I don’t want you to receive your degree today and say, “here is my degree, and this is what I am going to do for the rest of my life.” I want you to leave here today holding your degree in the palm of your hand and saying to yourself, here is my degree, this is where I begin, and the sky is the limit to what I can do now. This degree is my ticket and my passport into the world of endless opportunities, and I am going to make the most of every single one of them.

Eleven years ago I was sitting exactly where you are now. I had completed my degree, I was excited, I was proud, confident, but I was also a little scared, and still unsure of what I was going to do for the rest of my life. You might be feeling the same way too; that’s ok, it’s normal. Remember never fear, opportunity is always just around the corner. You just have to be open to receiving it, it may come to you in the unlikeliest of places. I will give you an example.

In my second year at UTS, I studied Applied Sports Psychology with a wonderful lecturer Lydia Ievleva. Lydia set an assessment task that really did change my life, and my career path, forever. She asked us to set a dream goal and do everything we could to achieve it. Most people in my class set goals to achieve good marks in exams or to make a certain sporting teams, practical things like that. I, on the other hand, set myself the impossible dream goal of being a popstar, that’s right, a popstar. I think this really entertained Lydia as no one had ever set a completely unrealistic goal like this before. Now, I must put this into perspective for you; I was studying Human Movement, I was sporty, I couldn’t sing, and I had no entertaining experience, but I thought would challenge myself and do something I have never done before. I also wanted to test the dream goal process out and see if it really did work.

One of the challenges I set myself along the way was to audition for the TV show aptly named Popstars. I was petrified of the audition process, but it was part of my assessment, so I had to do it. To cut a long story short, I turned up along with thousands of other more talented people, stood up in front of them all and belted out my best rendition of American Pie. I did not make it, no surprise there, however, I was very proud of myself for doing something so completely out of my comfort zone. I did not realise at the time that this may be the unlikely place where opportunity was lying dormant. I think it must have stirred the inner performer in me.

Fast forward just a few short years and somehow I found myself combining my degree in Human Movement with children’s entertainment. I had developed a children's fitness program at a local leisure centre as part of my work place learning and in two short years had catapulted into a national television series on the ABC, which saw me performing on stages all around the country and overseas. Perhaps the dream goal task really did work? Maybe we shouldn’t box ourselves into who we think we are or what we think we can do.

If I had restricted myself to just having a degree in Human Movement and believing that was all I was capable of doing, I would not have gone on the best, and quite frankly scariest, adventure of my life. I would never have had the guts to negotiate major contract deals with television networks and music publishers or to produce, write and direct television series. I would never have recorded two music albums, one of which received the APRA Award for best music in Children’s television, or managed, directed and performed in live shows and tours nationally and internationally. Nor would I have had the opportunity to be an ambassador for numerous companies, health foundations and Australia Day. Not bad for someone with “just a degree in Human movement.” A little self-belief goes a long way.

Looking back and reflecting on what I have achieved since completing my degree, has been really fascinating. I look at the UTS values; Discover, Engage, Empower, Deliver and Sustain and I realise just how much these values have applied to me and my journey. I encourage you all to look back at your own career journeys in a few years and see how they have applied to you too.

How will the UTS values shape your career? What can you do for the health of Australia? How will you incorporate them into your profession and your career?

Will you discover innovative and exciting new concepts to deliver to the general population and assist with the current health needs of the Australian community?

Will you engage others with your passion and enthusiasm for what you do? Will you empower the community with your desire to make a difference? Will you sustain a never give up attitude with your positive health messages?

You have the world of technology and social media at your fingertips. You can achieve anything you put your minds to. Go out there and be the best.

I believe that if you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life.

I encourage you all to step outside your comfort zones, be resourceful, be creative, be passionate and most importantly be kind because you never know where it will take you.

Remember no dream goal is ever too big. Who knows, there might be someone here today thinking about an all singing all dancing nursing musical extravaganza just waiting to happen.

Thank you for having me today. Congratulations graduates and good luck.