
By Sarah Schwager
PAKENHAM mother of four Vanessa Van Gramberg has achieved something many other mothers of young children would never dream of.
She has passed her VCE, spending the year balancing her home and family life with studying in the city.
Ms Van Gramberg, 33, decided to go back to school after her husband, Pietro Dabraio, 33, was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes as an adult, despite never being overweight, drinking heavily, or smoking.
“He went from being healthy to having five injections a day,” she said.
She said this illness meant that one day her husband would not be able to work.
“For the past five years I haven’t got any work at all. It’s been really difficult. Without the documentation, you don’t even get interviews.”
She eased her way into the year by studying four year 11 subjects last year, and this year completed five VCE subjects – English, legal studies, literature, Classical Societies and Cultures, and psychology.
While she did not receive high enough marks to get into her first university course preference, law, Ms Van Gramberg said she still wanted to go to university and would look at applying for justice studies or similar.
She said her family had been very supportive of her efforts throughout the year, but what surprised her the most was the support she received from complete strangers, who would come up to her on the street and in the train to congratulate her.
“I never used to finish things I started, but I made a new year’s resolution and I had to stick it out,” she said.
Mr Van Gramberg said she had taken full advantage of her opportunities at the Council of Adult Education (CAE) in the city, participating in mock trials and obtaining a number of reports and reference letters from teachers.
She said she had always been interested in law.
At 17, she got a traineeship at a courthouse in New South Wales, where she grew up, but had not finished.
She said the CAE had been very supportive of its students, which ranged from 16 to 60 years of age.
She said older people should not be scared about going back to school.
She encouraged people to do some year 11 subjects before attempting year 12, and to attend either CAE or a TAFE, which specially cater for teaching older students.
Ms Van Gramberg has lived in Pakenham for nine years, after she and her husband decided to buy their first house in the area and said she never wanted to move.
“I love it here,” she said.
“There’s so many young families in our street and there’s just such a community feel.”