Gem Spotlight - nalan ozacardi at unsw
Nalan joined UNSW in February of this year as their Development Manager, Medicine & Health. Here, she passionately describes her love of education, Advancement and how her new role has provided the most fulfilling years of her career.
Nalan is the Development Manager, Medicine & Health at UNSW
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I am a mother of two teenagers, living in Sydney spending much of my spare time with my family, trying different restaurants, going to the gym and taking in as much of the arts and culture Sydney has to offer.
What are you passionate about?
I am passionate about education. I believe that finishing school or University has the power to propel a life by providing confidence and knowledge and importantly provides an experience of seeing the world through different paradigms.
I am also passionate about the Arts, in particular Literature and cannot imagine a life without the delight of delving into a novel that has the power to make us think philosophically about our lives and experiences. My favourite authors are Doris Lessing and JM Coetzee.
If you could choose to do anything for a day, what would it be?
Spending a day at a quiet beach is the ultimate relaxation for me!
Where is your favourite or dream holiday destination?
Sicily and Rome for the food, history, culture, and amazing beaches.
If you could invite 3 guests to dinner, who would they be?
Judith Lucy, Michelle Wolf and Dylan Moran for a lively dinner full of laughter.
What’s the best thing about your current role?
I am incredibly lucky in my role to connect with wonderful people who want to make a difference and give back to society in their own way to support others who may not have the same opportunities they had.
I am also continually awed by the academics and researchers with whom I meet daily who have made it their life’s choice to educate the next generation of leaders and who are working on solving the bigger issues in society through their research and teaching.
Development / Advancement can be hard. How do you stay focused, motivated, and driven?
Advancement/Development has many wonderful elements to it. Being able to connect a donor with their area of passion and provide an opportunity for them to have the impact they were seeking is a wonderful motivator. Also hearing from the recipients of a philanthropic gift, whether that is an individual student who has received a life-changing scholarship or a researcher who can progress critical work because of a donation is incredibly motivating and gives me a very strong sense of purpose in my role and helps me stay motivated.
What motivated you to move into or start in the “for purpose” sector?
The ‘for purpose sector’ embodies kindness, empathy and generosity and I was motivated to work in a field where these qualities are front and foremost. It’s also wonderful being able to see the positive effects of my role on the broader community, for instance enabling more students to receive scholarship support and helping to bring awareness to critical research areas. Honestly, it took me a long time to realise that such jobs existed, but when I did, I felt compelled to become a part of this wonderful field. I have worked in Advancement for 5 years and these have been the happiest, most fulfilling years of my career so far.
What is your proudest accomplishment or career highlight?
My proudest accomplishment was completing an Honours degree and receiving a First Class whilst having 2 small children. For 7 years I focused on study mostly on weekends as I was very time poor as you can imagine. It was an incredibly challenging time, but I loved every minute of it.
Thanks for being a Gem Spotlight, Nalan!