Alumna Michelle Johanson (CC2011) attended Cornish from primary school to Year 10 before moving to the Brighton Campus of St Leonard’s for Years 11 and 12. Upon finishing school, she studied physiotherapy at Monash University and pursued this across a range of professional contexts. A deep-seated passion rests behind her career
choice to help others make a difference in their lives.
During my years at Cornish, I was able to discover my style of learning and think about how best to make a difference in the wider world. The ability to change lives for the better is certainly something that has followed me in the years since finishing school. Helping people through exercise so that they can live their lives to the fullest resonated with me and I have been fortunate to follow this interest through full-time study and a professional career.
Over the past six years, I have worked as a physiotherapist in private practice, aged care, and now the disability sector. I am particularly fond of the ‘Make a Difference’ message, which in relation to my specialisation, is to help people live their lives in ways that might not have been possible previously. One of my biggest workplace highlights to date involved helping a previously wheelchair-bound person to walk over 100 metres without stopping.
I have also been able to share my love of basketball with the wider community through playing and coaching representative basketball. I have a clear memory of the competitiveness of staff versus student games at Cornish all those years ago! That passion and competitiveness has never dimmed and I am enjoying being able to support the next generation of basketball stars in Collingwood.
