Virginia Falk is driven. While queuing at Centrelink and wondering how she was going to support four children alone, she decided education was the answer. “I did six degrees in five-and-a-half years. I think it’s a record,” she says with some understatement. Starting with three undergraduate courses, including a Bachelor of Vocational Education and Training from Charles Sturt University (CSU), she is currently a Chief Executive Officer with the NSW Department of Natural Resources. Her role there is to establish, administer and implement the Aboriginal Water Trust, a project to increase the level of Aboriginal participation in industries such as nurseries, recycling and “fertigation”. Meanwhile, her studies continue. “My doctoral thesis will be a breakthrough as far as understanding what water means to Aboriginal people, and how competition for water impacts on Aboriginal communities. I think that is going to be a really important area for people to understand.”