Photo: Lord Mayor Graham Quirk appoints Ralph Teodoro as an international student ambassador for Brisbane.
DUBAI: One of Brisbane’s international student ambassadors was born and raised in Dubai and he’s a Filipino.
Ralph Teodoro, a 20-year-old nursing student at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), has been tapped to be a member of the Brisbane International Student Ambassador program. It aims to promote Brisbane, which attracts 75,000 international students yearly, as a top international student destination. Teodoro is the first ever from the UAE to be picked as a student ambassador for the Study Brisbane program.
Teodoro was selected from some 300 student applicants, joining five other students from QUT as new Brisbane’s student ambassadors. They are among the 40 international students appointed by Lord Mayor Graham Quirk to join the program. Social media outreach, background and previous experience were some of the factors in the selection process, said Teodoro.
“As student ambassadors, we promote Brisbane through social media by attending unique opportunities and excursions for free! We’re constantly invited to conferences and meetings to enhance our professional portfolio and personal development,” he said. Student ambassadors also get to volunteer at multicultural events and assist with hosting official visiting delegations.
Teodoro is also the public relations officer for the Council of International Students Australia (CISA), the country’s peak representative organization for international students. The group advocate and lobby the federal and state government regarding the needs and issues concerning international students including quality education, racial discrimination, accommodation, workplace rights and exploitation, and travel concessions.
The oldest of three siblings, Teodoro studied at The Winchester School in Jebel Ali and The Philippine School in Rashidiya. His parents, Caroline, a senior administrator, and Ray Teodoro, a corporate designer, both live in Jebel Ali – The Gardens.
A keen sportsman, Teodoro plays basketball with the QUT Wildcats. He said everyone in the family is fluent in Filipino as their mom always spoke to them in the mother tongue, while their father preferred using English.
Teodoro, who has been studying in Australia for the last three years, said he didn’t have a hard time fitting in in the new country, although he admitted that UAE and Australia are “polar opposites”. He at first found it hard to believe, for instance, that in Australia, stores and malls close at 5 or 6 p.m. Still, he loves the fact that Australia offers people more freedom of expression.
