Creating his own chances

Ayman Hill is the first to admit that getting through school was a bit of a struggle. Often wayward and weary, he lacked motivation with core subjects and found it hard to stay on top of his studies. 

“I would just be in my own little world,” he recalls. “I struggled with focusing, picking the right friends, and just being there in general.” 

Oddly enough, he would eventually pursue a career that would see him back at school on a day-to-day basis.

“I guess it’s pretty funny that I ended up being a teacher,” says Ayman, who graduated with a Bachelor of Education (Primary) at ACU in 2023. “For a long time, it wasn’t the career I had in mind for myself.”

His road to teaching began in earnest more than a decade ago, with a school classroom visit from an organisation that worked with young people to create meaningful pathways. The session was a positive experience for Ayman, triggering a subtle mindset shift that would change his life.

“It never really clicked with me at the time,” he says, “but looking back, when I was watching that session, the thought that entered my mind was, ‘This is something I want to do. I want to have a positive impact on young people’.”

In the years to follow, Ayman began volunteering and working for a social enterprise called Creating Chances, which promotes positive youth development through sport. As a talented footballer who also coached his local team, he had the practical know-how to work with students from disadvantaged backgrounds, running life skills sessions to empower them to believe in themselves.

Meanwhile, after graduating from high school, Ayman’s own career had its ups and downs. On the one hand, his sporting future was looking bright, as he secured a contract to play semi-professional football in Spain. On the other, he had discontinued his university course after just one semester.

It was around then that Ayman did some soul-searching. 

“I looked towards my brother and sister, and they knew exactly what they wanted to do with their lives and easily went from one chapter to the next. I didn’t have that direction. I’d branch off into different avenues,” he says. 

“Seeing the clarity and direction they had about the future made me question myself, and I thought: ‘I’m passionate about football and I’m passionate about guiding young people and being of service to them. How can I put those things together and run with it?’.

“It suddenly became clear that teaching was the best fit for me.”

Finding culture

Ayman was able to combine fulltime study with football through ACU’s Away From Base (AFB) program, which provides Indigenous students with a chance to blend online learning with intensive residential blocks twice a semester.

For the first 18 months of his education degree, he spent the bulk of his time in Spain blocking shots as a goalkeeper for Unión Adarve.

Ayman Hill (second from right) with his teammates in Spain.

When he wasn’t on the football pitch, he was hitting the books and exploring teaching theory and practice. 

Completing group assignments was a major challenge, he says. Then based in the Spanish capital of Madrid, Ayman had to negotiate the time difference with his project partners in Darwin, Taree and other parts of Australia.

“Collaborating was tricky, but the Indigenous students on the AFB program have a deep respect for each other,” he says. “We came from all walks of life, but our passion for education and the goal of becoming a primary school teacher banded us all together.”

Ayman only became aware of his Aboriginality in his early teens. Raised by his mother, who is of Lebanese descent, he was oblivious to his Indigenous background until a family member revealed his father’s connections to the Ngunnawal people of Yass, in the Southern Tablelands region of New South Wales.

In the years since, he has spent time reconnecting with his culture and heritage, meeting other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students at ACU’s Yalbalinga unit, playing football with the Indigenous national men’s team, and even meeting Pope Francis alongside other First Nations students as a representative of ACU.

 

Ayman (right) with Gweagal woman Theresa Ardler and fellow ACU student Lachlan Sibir. Together, they met Pope Francis in 2021.

Finding out about his Indigenous roots as a teenager was a surprise, he says, but on reflection “it made a lot of sense”.

“I definitely feel part of the community and a great sense of pride when I represent my culture while playing football or in other activities,” says Ayman, now 28. “I just want to keep on exploring and learning about my culture, and I have a lot of respect in terms of where I stand on the ladder of it.”

Realising potential

One of Ayman’s most rewarding experiences through his degree was in Dareton, a remote community near the Murray River region of far-west NSW.    

After visiting the border town through his role as a facilitator with Creating Chances, Ayman returned to the school for his university teaching placement.

“I absolutely loved it,” he says. “It’s a small school of around 45 kids, mostly Indigenous, and I can’t tell you how rewarding it was. It’s experiences like these that have helped me to become a better person and a better teacher.”

Ayman now teaches at Canterbury South Public School, leading a classroom of year five and year six students – a role that is both challenging and rewarding. The thing he loves most about teaching is the opportunity to guide young people to explore their passions and realise their potential. 

“The ability to influence a group of 30 kids directly every day, to help them to discover themselves – for me, these are the golden nuggets,” he says.

“I see my job in the classroom as not only teaching the curriculum, but also helping students to develop life skills and find their feet in the world, because when they have those things, the learning comes naturally.”

His long-term goal? To turn his classroom values into whole-school values, when he one day becomes a principal.

It’s a far cry from the time that Ayman was a struggling high school student who lacked a clear direction and purpose.

“I see students who are holding themselves back and who can’t see their own potential, and I definitely can relate to that through my own experiences at school,” he says. 

“I want to be the type of teacher who provides a safe environment for them express themselves through sport, music and art so they have fun in the classroom and find what matters to them.

“We all face challenges and setbacks, and it’s how we respond to these things that matters most. It’s about finding your purpose and then doing your best.”

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