Graduate Careers Australia
Graduate Grapevine - Number 7, Autumn 2007
Profile: Marayke Jonkers – Paralympian
An aspiring journalist, Marayke Jonkers, Paralympic swimmer and 2005 Queensland Young Achiever of the Year, is a communications graduate from the University of the Sunshine Coast and also holds a Bachelor of Social Science.
She has a passion for writing, and hopes her recent experiences as a university student with a disability will allow her to help other students who have faced similar challenges in entering the workforce.
Since becoming a paraplegic at eight months of age in a car accident, she has been ‘run off her wheels’ chasing after her two dreams of being the fastest swimmer in the world and becoming a television presenter.
During her studies Marayke completed an internship with the ABC television program Stateline in Brisbane. She also wrote a number of stories for The Sunshine Coast Daily and a feature article about life in the Athens Paralympic village; at the games she won two bronze medals.
During her 12 years on the Australian Paralympic swimming team she has broken over 70 Australian records in breaststroke, individual medley, freestyle and butterfly, training 576 km per year, six days a week.
Based in her river front apartment in Maroochydore on the Queensland Sunshine Coast, Marayke also has a ‘zany’ travel ambition to visit every continent in the world. She is well on her way, having backpacked round Europe, ridden a camel at the pyramids in Egypt and swum at the world swimming titles in Argentina.
In her spare time, she enjoys shopping for clothes and jewellery, riding her handcycle, kayaking and has even experimented with sky diving and snow skiing in a sit ski.
She is a regular public speaker, especially to schools where she encourages children with disabilities to take up sport. She also works as a motivational speaker for corporate audiences ranging from two to 2000 people. It was in this role she first heard about GCA.
Marayke was a keynote speaker at the National Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (NAGCAS) conference in 2006, and GCA Executive Director Cindy Tilbrook was in the audience to hear her presentation ‘Thinking outside the chair – from Paralympic medallist to prime time journalist’.
Marayke has joined GCA’s list of authors and is currently writing the soon to be released Careers for Graduates with Disability. Marayke says she is looking forward to writing for GCA as it will keep her “brain from going soggy” as she trains for the 2008 Beijing Paralympics.
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