Working at Trinity “a dream come true” for 2025 Intern
It’s safe to say that Ms Jarian Hogan has a brain for numbers and organisation; she remembers citing Maths as her favourite subject back in primary school and it’s this love for Maths that has led her to teaching, a profession she admits is not her natural comfort zone.
“It’s a real challenge and reward situation for me, especially working with the students,” she says. “Stereotypically speaking, Maths isn’t the most liked subject. You get a lot of students who say ‘Oh, I’m not good at this. I’m just bad at this. I can’t do this’. Being able to work with those students, I find you get so many ‘Aha!’ moments.”
She says that those moments are when she knows that, despite being pushed out of her comfort zone, she’s on the right path.
When she first heard about the Trinity Internship Program in mid-2023, Ms Hogan wasn’t sure she was ready for the intensity of the opportunity, but by the time she’d visited a second information night in 2024, she knew that those reservations were exactly why she needed to push herself to do it.
“Once I switched on and knew I wanted to be [at Trinity], my grades just went up at uni, and my focus changed because I finally connected that this was all going towards something. Sometimes uni can feel a bit detached. But once I heard about this program it was like, okay, let’s get the work done so I can come here and make the most of the program.”
“I’ve always known about Trinity. I’ve always been quite aware of the reputation and the standard that comes with Trinity, so to be somewhere like Trinity is a dream come true.”
Throughout the program, Ms Hogan has been mentored by Mr Brett Lammiman and the pair have found a flow of feedback and guidance that works.
Ms Hogan says that anyone who is being mentored should always come with a growth mindset.
“In this program, you are an Intern. You’re a pre-service teacher. Yes, you have talents and you have things to add, but we’re new to the teaching profession. So, coming to it from that level of ‘I have so much to learn. I have so many areas to grow in’, and having that genuine respect for not only your mentor, but every other teacher around you, because everyone has so much to offer us as Interns.”
“The negatives usually start to come in when they say ‘My prac student thinks they know everything’. I think you have to come from the perspective of learning and growing and just wanting to improve, and being able to have those discussions around feedback and constructive criticism.”
Learning from other teachers has also been helpful. She says that over time she’s observed all the teachers in the Maths faculty.
“You see different teachers doing different things, they have their different styles, and you think, ‘I’ll try this, or I’ll try that’. So I’m starting to zero in on what actually works for me.”
“My confidence has grown and my fear factor has decreased.”
“I still get nervous to teach, but before it was so daunting to walk into a class and have a supervisor there.”
She says she barely notices Brett’s presence in the room anymore which has alleviated her nerves and her experience with tasks like report writing have helped to grow her confidence further.
“ It’s obviously going to be different each time, you’re going to have different kids to write reports on, but just having that confidence and that backing like, okay, I’ve done a little bit of it. That initial intimidation factor is not so much there anymore.”
While she’s unsure which direction she’ll head after the internship, she says that this experience has been the perfect way to transition into the profession rather than being “thrown in the deep end”.
“The idea of going into the teaching profession at the end of my degree was quite daunting, because it’s kind of like I’ve been wrapped in bubble wrap for all my placements. They’ve said ‘Oh you don’t need to do this, you’re a prac student, it’s fine’. But … I will have to do it eventually.”
“This experience, being here every week, you build rapport with the students, you’re aware of assessment writing, even if you’re not directly involved. You’ve got faculty meetings, you’re more aware of everything that’s going on.”
Now, as Trinity gears up to interview a new cohort of Interns for the program, Ms Hogan says that the chatter amongst her peers has reminded her of just how amazing the experience is.
“Once you’re here, you kind of lose touch a little bit … it’s normal,” she says.
