Karen Carmichael: Partners in Learning
By Margaret Carter
Karen is the winner of the 2008 NSW Corporate Volunteer of the Year Award
Karen Carmichael is a passionate woman. She walks toward me in a fire engine red dress, short chic hair and a voluptuous, sexy figure. Karen drinks a long black coffee. We meet in the Blue Stone Café on the campus of Optus's luxurious corporate head office in Ryde in Sydney's middle north shore.
Karen is ardent about her family, her company, her colleagues, and the students and teachers at Lurnea High, a large priority assistance school outside Liverpool in Sydney's South West. Karen grew up in another north shore suburb – Epping. To some extent, it's a million miles away from Lurnea, but really it's only a one-hour drive along the M2.
She started her career in customer service and is now the IT Commercial Director at Optus heading up the finance department in the IT division. Karen has three children-Patrick (aged 12), Sean (aged 10) and Amy (aged 8). She tells me that she likes to get things done and to problem solve. Well, last year has certainly given her that opportunity. When we first started talking I said that I would like to focus the conversation on her achievements and challenges over the last year. In particular, I wanted to talk about the continuation of her volunteering work while dealing with the enormous demands of her diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. But Karen was far more interested in talking about the wonderful people who have inspired her over the last two years and it was only after substantial questioning that I could get her to talk about herself-her contribution and her life.
When did you start volunteering?
"When I was a teenager I started helping out disadvantaged kids. I did it in partnership with my local church. I always wanted to make a difference and in some ways I saw the world as an unfair place. Some people are so lucky and others have it so tough. I wanted to help."
What made you get involved in volunteering with Optus?
"I have worked for Optus for 17 years and I guess that the reason I joined the company was because I saw that it was full of people who wanted to improve things. Initially we wanted to develop the customer service experience, but with time, it became more than that. It became about helping out the community."
A couple of years ago Karen became the IT Commercial Director and witnessed some of the work that a colleague was doing in the Australian Business and Community Network's (ABCN) Partners in Learning, a volunteer program run through Optus.
"I was inspired by how my friend was really changed by his volunteer work. At first it was about being able to include a CSR initiative on his résumé, but I saw how he moved from just thinking about his career to being really passionate about making a difference for these kids. He was very moved by the stories and challenges the students and teachers faced. When my colleague left Optus, he handed the baton over to me and I feel incredibly fortunate to have had that opportunity.
What exactly is the type of work that you do with Lurnea High?
"I am involved in the ABCN's Partners in Learning program. The program is designed to link business and educational professionals so that they can share experiences, solve problems and explore leadership challenges together." Karen initially worked very closely with Brad Mitchell, deputy principal of Lurnea High. "It was about meeting with Brad to find out about the needs of his school and putting in place an ongoing mentoring program to support the teachers and students."
The program, which is part of Optus' CSR Program, gives students a professional development experience with Optus, well beyond what they would otherwise have access to. Through utilising her business contacts from 17 years with Optus, Karen is able to offer the students work experiences far beyond the scope of their limited personal and school networks.
"Most importantly, the program is about opening the eyes of the students to different opportunities, showing them possibilities that exist outside their world and helping them to visualise a different life. We do this through a whole range of mediums."
Below is a sample of the work that Karen and her colleagues have done for Lurnea High:
- Life skills workshops on goal setting and interviewing.
- Career workshops on a whole range of topics from film making to techolology.
- One-on-one mentoring between senior Optus executives and children at the school.
- Trips to the circus and the Sydney Opera House.
"We are learning as we go. It has been huge and the commitment of Optus staff has been incredible."
What have you got out of the volunteering experience?
"So, so much. Everyone who has been involved with this work within Optus have been astounded as to how it has enriched their lives. We are in a bubble on the north shore and we don't really realise what life is like for people living close by. This is the same for the children at Lurnea High."
"These children are completely isolated from people in the corporate world. Many of the students are new immigrants, children of refugees, from broken homes, or suffer drug abuse, physical violence and poverty. Their introduction to life has been harsh and unforgiving and offers them little of the opportunities we take so much for granted."
"The teachers at the school are totally committed. They do so much more than teach. They pick up the pieces of children impacted by domestic abuse, drug abuse, mental health and even starvation."
"Every day presents new challenges and the teachers do this type of work because they really care. These teachers are heroes. The types of conversations that they have with each other and with the children at the school are so different from the exchanges that we have in the corporate world."
"Helping this high school has helped us be more real about our own work life and personal troubles-it has helped me put things into perspective."
Has volunteering helped you deal with breast cancer?
"Yes, definitely. It put my cancer into the 'right place' – a part of my life that I need to live with but I can't control. The work with Lurnea High gave me focus-goals and tasks to do when I was going through the treatment. It gave me something to think about other than myself." When Karen was first diagnosed she was in the middle of a huge series of workshops that Optus was running for the school. As well, she had to contend with the end of financial year work demands.
"I put my treatment on hold so that we could finish the workshops and I had to put someone else in place to deal with my workload. Although Optus provide unlimited sick leave I decided to work through my treatment. I didn't want to sit on the couch at home without hair. My children and husband already had enough to deal with. I wanted life to be as normal as possible." So, for most of the treatment, Karen came to work, but instead of her usual job, she put her heart and soul into the work with Lurnea High. "When I was diagnosed, the support that came from the high school was amazing. I had no idea how important I was to the people at the school. I realised that despite what was happening to me I was making a difference-that was incredibly important to me."
How difficult has volunteering been for you?
"Becoming involved was surprisingly easy. I found that the people who wanted to help at Optus always had time for the program. They wanted to be involved. In fact, at times, it was as if I had more people than I needed to do the work."
"I think that it was also easy because I have been with Optus for such a long time. I have good relationships in place with senior people who have the power to really get things done. It is also easy because the children are hungry for the work that we do. They want to see 'outside of the box'. They are grasping for hope and assurance that they too can lead worthwhile and prosperous lives."
How does the volunteering work that you do affect you?
"I suppose the challenging aspect of my work at Lurnea High has been knowing some of the stories of the children that I deal with. Yes, I lie awake at nights thinking about the incredibly tough lives of the children and I have a sense of helplessness in my inability to assist on a personal level."
Karen worries about what will happen to some of the children especially those who might be starving or are on the streets. "It is agonising when you don't know what to do. I think about the teachers who deal with this every day and I really appreciate what they do for us as a society."
Karen asked that I walk up with her to pick up some notes for this article. As I waited at her desk she showed me a thank you card from the students expressing their appreciation. Karen said to me: "Look at what they have given me … they think that what we have done is a privilege; they don't understand that this is normal. This is what other children have as part of their everyday lives." Karen had tears in her eyes when she said: "Their gratitude is humbling."
The Centre
for Volunteering [ABN 28 002 416 024]
Level 2, 228 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW 2000
T: 02 9261 3600 | F: 02 9261 4033 | E: info@volunteering.com.au
www.volunteering.com.au