When Athraa Yousif arrived at VU, she was looking for a different way to learn. What she found was a career pathway she hadn’t expected — one that would eventually see her helping other students take their next step.
“I felt a real sense of community here,” she says. “More than anywhere else I’d studied.”
Athraa Yousif first came to VU in 2021 as a Bachelor of Psychology student after struggling to find her footing at another university.
“It was big lecture rooms, thousands of people, and I felt lost,” she says. “I had so many questions, but I never felt like I could ask them.”
Teaching had always been the path she’d imagined for herself, but the experience left her questioning whether university was the right fit at all.
After leaving university, Athraa completed qualifications in community services, where smaller class sizes gave her a glimpse of what study could feel like when it works. She later began working in a school setting, supporting students as a counsellor.
She loved helping people, but adds “I wanted to understand more about the psychology behind it — why people think and behave the way they do, how you support them in different ways.”
A chance conversation
It was a conversation with a friend that pointed her towards VU — a friend who had been one of the first cohorts to experience VU’s Block Model. “She loved it. And as soon as she explained it, I thought — that’s exactly what I need.”
By then, Athraa had already explored different study pathways and discovered she thrived in smaller, more personalised learning environments.
Working as a school counsellor had also deepened her interest in psychology and understanding how best to support others. At VU, she found the learning experience she’d been looking for.
“The structure just worked,” she says. “You focus on one unit, you have assessments each week, you get feedback straight away and apply it to the next one. It felt like you were constantly progressing.”
“The classroom sizes meant you actually knew your lecturers,” she says. “You could ask questions, you could talk about your future, your career pathways. I was always picking their brains about how they got to where they are.”
That sense of connection became a defining part of her experience, opening up opportunities she hadn’t expected. In her first year, Athraa applied for a casual role as a peer career advisor in VU’s Careers Hub. “I thought, why not just try?” she says.
She worked in the role alongside her studies, helping other students navigate resumes, applications and job searching.
“I realised it still had that same element of helping people,” she says, “but through a different lens.” Athraa reflects on the support she was given by her Manager, who gently pushed Athraa out of her comfort zone and nurtured her professional development.
“It felt like someone could see my potential and was helping me get there. Little things like that really helped build my confidence early on in my career.”
“Now I can jump into any job coaching session I deliver and think, okay — what are we working with today?”
For Athraa, that experience captures something fundamental about what it means to truly thrive in a university environment — academically, personally and professionally. “It changed my thinking — I started to wonder what other opportunities there could be at VU that I could tap into.”
Helping students move from study to employment
In 2024, after completing her degree, Athraa successfully secured a full-time role as an Employability Consultant at VU.
By the time she walked across the stage at her graduation ceremony in March 2025, her VU colleagues from the Careers Hub were right there, alongside her family and friends, cheering her on. “It felt like I had another community there supporting me,” she says. “Not just as a graduate, but as a peer, a part of the team.”
Today, her work centres on helping students navigate one of the most critical transitions in their lives: moving from study into employment. It’s work that blends everything Athraa has learned — her background in psychology, her experience in community services, and her own personal journey.
“There are different challenges for everyone. There’s confidence, there’s identity, there’s not feeling like you belong,” she says. “A lot of the work we do is helping students recognise what they already bring.”
For Athraa, who arrived in Australia from Iraq a decade ago, one of the most powerful of these skills is language.
Fluent in four languages, she has seen firsthand how being able to communicate across cultures can be a huge advantage in employment. “I’ll have students ask before they even come in — do you speak Arabic?” she says. “And when I say yes, you can see the relief straight away.”
They feel understood. They feel safe. And that builds their confidence in everything else — what they put on their resume, how they present themselves.”
It’s also a perspective she actively encourages students to embrace as a strength. “A lot of young people don’t realise that speaking another language is a skill employers value,” she says. “When they start to see that, it changes how they see themselves.”
Athraa recalls working with an international student who had recently completed her studies in early childhood education but had been struggling to find work. “We worked on her applications, her interview skills, her confidence,” she says.
“And after months, she sent me this long email saying she’d gotten her dream job as an educator.” “You see the impact quite quickly,” Athraa says.
For Athraa, her role at VU is about “community and opportunity,”
“I came here looking for a different way to learn. I found a place where I could help others find their own path.”
