 My name is Allie, I'm a volunteer at the Langmuir and Fire Brigade with the CFA. I'm also currently a law student at Deakin University in Berwood. I joined the CFA roughly about two years ago. I think what really sparked the interest in the beginning was my dad had been a volunteer for so long and he used to come home from jobs and before I'd even let him sit back down and quiz him with 101 questions of where he had been, what he had done, who went on the track with him, did they go code one, code three? So I always really had that interest and then when I finished high school I decided I'd give it a go. So I sent in my application and did my minimum skills and since then I've loved it. I've done a few different courses like BA, breathing apparatus and low structure, probably a couple of the biggest ones I've done. I've also done a few smaller courses like fire safe kids. That's been a great course because it's meant that when we go to schools or schools come here I'm able to teach children about fire safety. The standout trainings that I've done has been my breathing apparatus. The BA was a very challenging one for me it was something I'd never done before so I loved that now whenever there's a job where there's an opportunity to put the set on my back I'm the first to put my hand off and say I'll do it. One of the first fires I attended was just a little bin fire down at the local football club. One of the guys on the track he was our captain he said to everyone on the track just you know let Ali do her thing and she can run the job I want to see what she does so I did I got everything set up and straight away put the straight jet onto the melting plastic which he expected I would do so they all got a good laugh out of that and then I guess one of the other big jobs I've been to was a big bushfire down at the Seaford football club that was a very confronting job because again nothing like I'd ever done before as soon as I jumped off the truck smoke just hit you straight away I started watering no start watering but it was great there was lots of different brigades there I got tasked with a couple of guys from some neighbouring brigades and we did some blacking out so it was great to pretty much put all the skills I'd learned in minimum skills into practice got to use the knapsack and the Rayco and yeah I guess those would probably be the first couple of jobs that stood out. Balancing the CFA and uni can be quite hard because they are huge commitments it does require a lot of prior organising I need to have a diary that I like to plan probably at least four weeks in advance of what I'll be doing it does require a lot of flexibility as well people at the brigade are really good they're really supportive especially when it comes to exam time if I have to cut back a bit on turning out or making training they're really understanding but also my university holidays coincides with CFA's busiest season which is the summer season so I get to redeem myself then and jump on the truck as much as I can when and when all the jobs start coming through. I guess about halfway through high school towards the end of year nine I really started applying myself to my studies and I ended up finishing year 12 with a really good score so it was sort of a last minute decision that I was like okay I'll give Laura a go so I wasn't exactly sure of what I wanted to go into but since doing that I've found that being the volunteer in the CFA has helped so much especially things like getting work experience and now that I've started to become towards the end of my degree I've really become conscious of building up experience and networking it's been great I'm having the CFA is something to put on my resume it's definitely something that sets me apart from other applicants it's a really unique thing to be able to say I'm a CFA volunteer in the interview it's something that always gets brought up and then just job skills as well like employees love it the character building aspects of being in the CFA the leadership and the discipline the teamwork also being able to think of my feet and look adversity in the eye and just go okay this is what we need to do those sort of things employers love and it's something that I can sort of use the CFA to demonstrate how I've got those skills also something like the scribing that I've done a few times here at the CFA has also really transferred over in university so that skill of being able to write really quickly has really helped in our university especially law exams your to our exam you do not stop writing in also through my time with the CFA I sort of sought out the CFA legal counsel that work at headquarters I was able to use some connections to get their number and so I just gave them a call and said hey could I come in and do some work experience so I'm due to do that in the next couple of weeks again that's something that the CFA has helped in my outside life friends at uni I think they love it or at least I think they like hearing all the stories that I come to uni with if I've been to a house fire or something like that the night before I get to uni tell them all about it I think they think it's pretty cool again it's something that's unique I mean I don't really know that there'd be many at my university that do it or in my course especially some of the guys they all say oh yeah I'd love to do that one day so definitely something that you know is an interesting conversation starter I guess the advice I would give is just give it a go being a female and a young person as well I don't fit into the stereotype of what a firefighter is in the CFA but I just gave it a go I always knew in the back of my mind that I've got nothing to lose if I don't like it then I don't have to continue there's nothing locked in about it and by just giving it a go I've found that I've loved it it's been such a great experience for me it's been so character-building and I've met some incredible people some of my closest friendships from the CFA and from my brigade I guess it's hard to put it into words exactly what it's going to be like yeah my advice would just be you've got nothing to lose give it a go