Joseph Prospere and Mikhail Eremeev

What this episode covers

Over the extended holiday break we're looking back over some of the more fascinating conversations featured in this series with two student stories highlighted in each episode. These bite sized snapshots are a bit like your favourite holiday photos – a reminder of a memorable moment and a chance to revisit that experience again. The second of our Summer Snaps series features two students whose stories are nothing short of inspiring. Both came from very humble beginnings on the opposite sides of the world to pursue their dreams on the Gold Coast. Joseph Prospere was raised in refugee camps in Africa until he was 13 when his family were taken in by the Norwegian government. Now as an architecture student at Griffith University Joseph is designing a future that would have seemed impossible growing up in a refugee camp in Malawi. His recollection into that part of his life imbued with his wonderful sense of humour are an extraordinary revelation – one that won’t be quickly forgotten. Mikhail Eremeev is also a student at Griffith. He grew up in poverty in Moscow and when his mother passed away Mikhail was taken to an orphanage at the age of 12. It was there that he began to turn his life around. Despite having no money he dreamed of travelling the world and decided the only way he could do that was through education. With a little bit of good fortune he seized an opportunity to visit the US through a working vacation program for international students. Up until then Mikhail had never travelled anywhere outside Russia in his life. As Mikhail says, for a young man who’d grown up in an orphanage with no money to his name, he may as well have been travelling to the moon. Mikhail never stopped travelling after that first US trip, working hard to save money to give himself every opportunity to see the world, but it’s Australia – and more specifically the Gold Coast, where his heart lies and where he plans to stay after completing his Masters in Hospitality and Management at Griffith University.