By Dylan J Stone
Jarrah Hodgins (née Seager) has a big reputation across the local community as well as interstate, and her work in a number of leadership roles over many years certainly shows why.
Inspired by the hard work and dedication of her parents, who are leaders in their respective employment roles, Mrs Hodgins joined the Student Representative Council (SRC) while she was at Burke Ward Primary School, and ran for school captain in year 6.
While her campaign back then was unsuccessful, this only encouraged her to continue her leadership aspirations as she moved from primary to high school and it was one of the first examples of the resilience Mrs Hodgins has become very well known for.
In 2009, she joined Broken Hill High School SRC as a year 7 student.
“The SRC was well-established and well-supported by the school community.’ Mrs Hodgins says, “and this was very important, because it enabled the SRC to organise events with the money raised by the school community, ensuring students could share ownership of the work they had done as part of the SRC.”
Mrs Hodgins became Co-President of the SRC, along with Shae Nevill, in 2012 and 2013, but her work with the SRC extended far beyond the boundaries of the school fence. Mrs Hodgins quickly became involved in organising the 2012 NSW State SRC
Conference as part of the State Conference Action Committee, after attending the same conference in 2011.
In her time at the SRC, she says her biggest achievement was, “furthering a well-established culture of student voice over many years, so other students could feel they could approach the SRC for representation and advocacy about the issues facing them, their school, and their community.”
She says her greatest achievement wasn’t necessarily a specific program or initiative, “but the culture which the SRC established for the benefit of the student community.”
Outside of the SRC, Mrs Hodgins received the joint Broken Hill Young Citizen of the Year award in 2014, along with this writer, in recognition of her contribution and involvement in school and community events.
Mrs Hodgins had been actively involved with the Broken Hill 42nd Army Cadet Unit since she was 12. She became a sergeant and led a team of Cadets in field exercises while teaching them leadership skills.
The Cadets provided the skills and passion for Mrs Hodgins to successfully apply for the NSW Service Club’s 2013 Kokoda Trail Scholarship, which saw her travel to Papua New Guinea to walk the trail.
“Only two of the 27 participants were sponsored through NSW Service Clubs, and I was the youngest participant out of the group. The trail was tough, but I did the 190km walk the soldiers walked through during the Second World War, and this taught me so much about teamwork, endurance, sacrifice, and integrity.’
Mrs Hodgins laughs that, “I had the mental fitness for the trial, even though I wasn’t the most physically strong person there.”
She later spent time reflecting on, “wondering why I managed to complete the trial when I was the youngest person there and not the most physically strong, while other people who were better resourced weren’t able to complete the trial”.
Mrs Hodgins’ ‘self-talk’ stirred a new passion, and inspired her to go into the field of psychology.
At the end of 2014, she was accepted into Uni SA’s Bachelor of Psychological Science. During her time at university, her leadership skills continued to grow. In 2015, she became a mentor for first-year students, and an Academic Student Representative (ASR), a role continued in to 2016.
The following year, she was accepted as one of two students from Uni SA to attend the National Student Leadership Forum in Canberra, where she visited Parliament House and met then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Impressively, Mrs Hodgins became one of the 32 facilitators from Australia for the 2018 program to support new student leaders going through the program.
In the same year, she established a program with Uni SA to ‘connect regional high schools with the University
“Burra Community School was a stand-out participant, as we used the program to spark an interest in university and higher education for regional students,” says Mrs Hodgins.
For a short period, she returned to Broken Hill to volunteer for the Youth Action Group at Headspace, but was then accepted into her honour’s degree in 2018. As part of that degree, Mrs Hodgins wrote a thesis on the resilience of children who attend nature-based learning environments.
The thesis concluded that, “a nature-based curriculum resulted in students achieving significantly higher levels of resilience than students who were in the mainstream”.
While completing her honours, Mrs Hodgins was one of eight students accepted into Uni SA’s leadership program LEAD, which provided coaching, mentoring, and support over 12 months.
She used her time at LEAD to develop a rural connection program, which included a scholarship which would pay for the first year of a university degree for a student living in Whyalla.
At the end of 2018, Mrs Hodgins moved back to Broken Hill and gained employment with NSW Health as a provisional psychologist working with adults with acute mental illnesses. After 18 months, she moved to a new role in the same service, this time working with children.
In 2021, she changed jobs and became a school psychologist working for the NSW Department of Education, and in May 2022, became a fully registered psychologist, now working across three schools, and looking after over 1100 students.
This is her dream role, she says. “I am giving back to the community, and I am able to work with the students of my own community.”
Mrs Hodgins’ passion is developing the potential for students, and she has been able to combine her leadership capabilities to her employment for the benefit of the students, and the entire community, “from a clinical psychological perspective”.
When I asked Mrs Hodgins for advice she’d give anyone starting out on their own leadership journey, she said to remember that, “no matter what happens to you in life, and no matter what opportunities you go for and are pushed back on, don’t let it affect you”.
“Be resilient, and don’t let one small thing in life take over you. It’s important to know yourself and your identify, what you want to do in life, and most importantly, to go for it.”
Mrs Hodgins is a Broken Hill local who was raised here and says she “had so many opportunities in Broken Hill due to the support from the community”.
She moved to Adelaide to continue to build herself and her career, and now she has come back, “to the community that I love to inspire children to achieve their goals so they can lead a fulfilling life”. Welcome back Mrs Hodgins!
