Join the Staff Giving Program
Clare Burns is a PhD candidate and sessional academic in the Department of Business Strategy and Innovation. Clare was announced as the 2020 winner of Griffith University’s 3MT, (Three Minute Thesis competition) and the British Academy of Management Conference Best Poster Award and received a highly commended teaching citation recognition from the Dean, Learning and Teaching. In addition to her professional career, Clare is an active volunteer of Rosies Friends on the Street.
A Griffith MBA graduate, Clare decided on taking the plunge and moving to Brisbane to start her PhD studies after many years in corporate consulting.
“I dropped down to 10 percent of what I was earning in order to do the PhD, but I’m passionate about this and I’m really glad I started that journey”.
“I'm grateful for the all the education opportunities I have received, which includes the association with Griffith academics who share a passion for business which promotes a flourishing of society. A flourishing society does not leave behind its most vulnerable members,” says Clare.
Clare has spent several years interviewing business and finance leaders as she investigates Australia’s growing corporate greed culture. Her 2020 3MT winning presentation titled ‘Corporate Sustainability: Holding up a mirror to greedy finance culture’ was engaging, well-crafted, accessible and understandable. You can read more on this through her blog article here.
When it comes to Staff Giving, Clare goes on to say that “for a number of years, I had been interested in the Staff Giving Program but had a psychological barrier to participating as a sessional academic and full-time PhD student. This was wrong.
Once I found out I could give as a sessional it was then, how much? I need to be prudent, but I can give a little. To be honest since joining the program I don’t miss the little I give and when I hear stories of student hardship (which is now all too common), there is not the same sense of helplessness.
I am glad Staff Giving is part of my ‘new normal.’ As a teacher, students share how challenging financial situations impact their ability to learn–it shouldn’t be this way.
The very real challenges some students face is also evident as a non-executive director/volunteer with Rosies Friends on the Street: we now have more international students presenting at outreaches than ever before.
If you are a staff member hesitant about making Staff Giving as part of your new normal, I would encourage you to give as you can, not as you can’t, even $5, $10, or $20 will make a difference.”