Germany's Jorunn Lorenzen came to Australia to learn about farming but also found out plenty about human nature. She spent time in the 'school of hard knocks' before finding romance and enrolling to study an Arts degree at CQUniversity Rockhampton...

LINK HERE for Faces of Orientation

LINK HERE for Study trek starts with inter-generational support

Jorunn Lorenzen - no stranger to hard work 
Jorunn in farmstay mode

                                                                    At age 19, Jorunn and another German girl registered for a farmstay prorgram and found themselves 100km from Hughenden "on a property owned by a 70-year-old very confused man". 

"We learned later that we had been sent out to look after him more or less. But since there was no way we could remember how to find our way off the property and he had trouble remembering where his house was; we figured it would be better to move on. We were too young for that responsibility at that stage," she said.

"The second job was alright although we did not get on very well with our boss, a woman this time. Back then I thought she hated Germans (she had a few prejudices) but now I know how terrible 19-year-old girls from Germany are, especially 2 of them together. She thought: even if they are willing they just do everything wrong and you have to do it again yourself!

"I then ended up on Dovecot Station where I learned everything about farm work and building as we (my now partner, another Canadian backpacker and myself) built a set of steel cattle yards. I can now ride a motorbike, drive a truck and an excavator, sort of, muster, brand, do fencing repairs and learnt a whole lot about mechanics etc. I love the work because I like physical exercise and I never sleep better as I do after a day of fencing.

"I wanted to do some outdoor physical work and I found my boyfriend on a property I worked at. I live here since then. So I stayed here because of him, obviously I also love the country and the people here!"

Jorunn's hometown is about 160km north of Hamburg. It has 5000 inhabitants and is a rural village surrounded by farming country.

"After school, I firstly went to Denmark to do a Danish course for a couple of months. I have a Danish citizenship (that is common up there) and wanted to improve my language abilities," she said.

"I then planned on going to Asia to do environmental voluntary work, found Australia to be cheaper and decided to do the farm work."

Since enrolling at CQUniversity Rockhampton, Jorunn has become a mentor and gave a welcome address at this week's (Feb 22) Orientation welcome. She said mentoring had been a positive experience.  LINK HERE for details on how to become a Mentor *

"You learn a lot about yourself and how to cope with the different situations and the pressure and hectic times in O-Week. I am certainly not perfect as a mentor. I find myself to be a bit quick sometimes and I forget about the mentees' situation of not having a clue. I then go over things too quickly or forget points that I wanted to make. I remember them later and am worried that they might have needed that particular information."

Jorunn found a few of her charges to be a bit too reliant.

"After I did my tour today I told my mentees that we are finished and they could go home. Some kept following me until they said 'Where are we going now?'. I told them that they could go home. They laughed and said well how do we get back to the Sportscentre and the carpark? I assumed they would have remembered which direction to go to."

The international student said she loves keeping fit and running with her dogs and another hobby is photography. She's keen to progress to a career incorporating her study areas of environment, marketing and business. 

"I could imagine having my own business one day; maybe an environmental consultancy or something in that direction. Or also do something with photography. Honestly I am pretty open towards my future, as long as I do something I enjoy and find interesting."

* Anyone who has studied at CQUniversity for a year can participate in the Student Mentor and Leadership Program. If you wish to be a part of the great Mentoring team next year email to Jorunn s0147106@student.cqu.edu.au or Gemma g.mann@cqu.edu.au .