Alumni story: Tiayana Lentini

From anxious beginnings to changing lives in the red centre: Tiayana’s Audiology journey

As Tiayana Lentini reached the end of her Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Melbourne, her future felt far from certain. “I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, but I was interested in the allied health space and I wanted to work with kids,” she recalls.

Drawn to the intimate cohort of the Master of Clinical Audiology, Tiayana enrolled in the course – but she began the degree with hesitation. “Before I started the course, I felt extremely anxious about whether the field would even interest me or be something I could actually achieve,” she says.

What Tiayana didn’t know was that this anxiety would quickly give way to a genuine sense of belonging and purpose, thanks to a supportive community and immersive placement opportunities. Now working with young people as a diagnostic audiologist in Alice Springs, Tiayana looks back on a degree that gave her the confidence to build a career in a field, and a place, she once knew almost nothing about.

A supportive place to grow

It didn’t take long for Tiayana to form strong and supportive relationships within the course – not only with her classmates but with the award-winning teaching team. “Having teachers who were very invested in our learning, but who also really cared about us not only as students but as people, made it feel like a very supportive environment to learn,” she says.

Hearing from world-leading academics such as Professor Dani Tomlin (renowned for her auditory processing research) and Dr Donella Chisari (well-known for her vestibular audiology expertise) about their own career journeys added another layer of motivation throughout Tiayana’s studies. “Hearing about their career path that led them to where they got to was really inspiring.”

While the course grounded her in the core clinical skills of audiology, Tiayana says it gave her much more than technical competence. “I also learnt a lot about patient-centred care and communication skills, specifically for differing individual needs and challenging situations. The level of detail that was put into the course [has given me] such a wide skillset and deep understanding of so many different clinical tasks.”

How student placements shaped Tiayana’s career path

While Tiayana gained a wide range of skills through the curriculum, it was the extensive work-integrated learning components of the course that helped bring her future into focus.

“Getting to experience placements across a variety of different clinical settings really made a difference in my learning, and helped me understand the kind of environments and clinic types I wanted to work in after graduating,” she says.

Tiayana’s interested in working with children was solidified through her time working with young people in placements at the Royal Children’s Hospital and Monash Health. “Being afforded so many placements working with kids and diagnostics made me feel really comfortable and confident,” she says. “It ultimately helped me understand that paediatric diagnostics is where I wanted to work.”

The course didn't just prepare Tiayana clinically; it also helped her plan for life after graduation. "The course provided us with information on recruitment information events for large hearing aid companies, and gave us resources to prepare for interviews."

It paid off. "I did graduate and got a job in the field I was very interested in, so I achieved my goal."

From Melbourne to Alice Springs

Today, Tiayana works as a diagnostic audiologist in Alice Springs, splitting her time between a Community Health Centre and an ENT hospital setting. While she sees diverse clients of all ages, her caseload is predominantly paediatric.

“A lot of my work involves communicating with First Nations individuals, where often communication, language and health literacy can create challenges during appointments,” she explains. “I also see children with a variety of individual needs and abilities. The skills I took from the course, along with learning skills through my current supervisors, allowed me to understand how to tailor my communication to meet the needs of more challenging situations like these early on in my graduate year.”

The move itself has been one of the proudest parts of her early career. “Just being able to live and work somewhere so remote and isolated, and socially and culturally so different to everything I've ever known, is something I’m proud of.”

One experience stands out above the rest: her first outreach trip to the remote community of Mutitjulu, a six-hour drive from Alice Springs. “I got to provide diagnostic services to the community," she says. "While I was there I also got to visit Uluru and Kata Tjuta, which felt almost very surreal, that I was able to have these experiences as part of my career.”

A career full of possibilities

As she looks back on her journey from an anxious first-year student to a diagnostic audiologist changing children’s lives in remote communities, Tiayana is already thinking about the next stage of her career. “I would really love to continue working in the paediatric space, and in a hospital setting also.”

“I think transitioning from a remote location like Alice Springs into a similar environment but in a metro space, to experience different kinds of audiological needs of the community and a busier environment, is something I would be really interested in.”