Meet Our People

Sandeep grew up in country South Australia in a place called Whyalla, moving to Adelaide when he was in High School. While completing Year 11 he completed a student exchange program in Germany, and he hasn’t stopped travelling since.

Between his travel adventures he completed his Bachelor of Law and Commerce, followed by a Graduate Diploma in Chartered Accounting. He now spends his days helping students prepare for their exchanges. You are most likely to find him talking on the phone to families or playing with his two daughters who he adores.

Natrisha was always destined to love travel. Growing up her family went on many overseas holidays and visited many different countries, and this later fuelled her interest to go on exchange from New Zealand to Norway for a year.

Her passion for travel reflects her working life with 14 years in the travel industry and, more recently, 8 years working with high school exchange programs. Her husband also went on exchange, and there is every likelihood that their teenage children will also become exchange students somewhere in the world one day!

Natrisha and her family now call Sydney home and consider themselves Kiwi Australians with Norwegian influences!

Matt was always destined for a life of variety, connection, and building opportunities for others. Growing up in Wollongong, NSW Matt travelled to Nepal on exchange for three months at 17 years of age. This experience carved a unique career path – running a successful country pub in Gulgong NSW, Manager of TAFE services in NSW, Correctional Officer and Primary School teacher.
Matt brings a strong background in operations, training, recruitment, and hands-on people skills. Matt thrives on helping others grow and create meaningful experiences. His passion for education, leadership, and community shines through in everything he does. Welcoming inbound students and ensuring their stay is meaningful and engaging is a top priority.
Matt and his wife (a fellow exchange student to America) are raising two energetic boys (aged 11 and 7) in Adelaide. They now call South Australia homes after their big move from regional NSW. Matt values being a present dad, golf, and proud coach of the under 11’s North Adelaide cricket team.

Katrina has over 30 years of experience in marketing and communications in education and student exchange. Although she was not an exchange student, she is continually inspired by the young people who go on exchange and their transformation into worldly, mature, independent people when they return. Katrina loves telling authentic stories and fostering meaningful connections through digital platforms to inspire others to engage with exchange programs.

Katrina was born in rural NSW and has lived in Sydney since she was young, where she still lives with her husband and 2 adult children. She loves country music, a good book and dreams of living by the beach!

Tiph grew up in Montelimar, a small town in the south of France. She spent many years exploring France and Europe before travelling and living in Australia, Edinburgh, and London. Tiph moved back to Australia with her husband, where she settled and is raising her 2 boys. She regularly visits France with her family to immerse them in their French heritage.

She loves spending time with her dog, camping around South Australia, and watching sports with her family. Before moving to Australia, Tiph coordinated school trips throughout Europe. As our current Outbound Student Coordinator, Tiph now supports Australian students so they can experience the world through exchange.

Renee grew up in coastal Geelong, Victoria, with a love for the beach and a strong connection to her Dutch heritage. Her passion for cultural exchange began with a high school exchange in the Netherlands and grew during a university exchange at the University of Amsterdam. She remains close with her Dutch host family, reflecting the lasting bonds formed through these experiences. Now based in Melbourne, Renee enjoys city life while still making time to visit the coast.

New to the student exchange industry, Renee has valuable experience from student support work at a university student union and volunteering with tertiary exchange students. She is passionate about helping students feel supported and connected throughout their international education journey.

Arwen was born in the Netherlands and moved to Adelaide with her family when she was younger. She was a flight attendant and worked for a large global tour operator in France while completing studies in tourism and business. Having grown up between two countries, she’s always been interested in learning about other cultures, traditions, and languages and can relate to having to adjust to a new school, language, and group of friends.

Arwen has solo travelled extensively in Europe, checking many items off her bucket list such as; seeing the Northern Lights, feeding reindeer in Norway, visiting Olympia and snorkelling to explore pirate shipwrecks in Greece, visiting the Swiss Alps, backpacking in the UK, and eating lots of pasta in Italy – all while meeting some of her best friends.

Arwen loves connecting with people, hearing about their experiences, and creating positive memories. She’s passionate about travel and exchange programs and believes they open a new world to young people, helping build their confidence, resilience, and independence.

Maria is Australian born and bred but is a proud Greek! She grew up in Sydney where she still lives with her husband and children. She first went overseas when she was 11 years old for 3 months to Greece, Singapore and Egypt and has since travelled extensively.

Spending most of her career in the hospitality and corporate industries, she joined the exchange world 3 years ago as an Inbound and Outbound Program Manager. She has never been on exchange herself but feels like she experiences the world through the students’ she meets.

Now working with only Inbound students, she loves to watch them transform from nervous, uncertain teens to adventurous, confident humans with an Aussie twang!
In her down time Maria loves reading and every afternoon – and sometimes early in the morning – you’ll find her in the car, driving her kids to sport or training sessions.

Aubrey grew up in Adelaide and has a love for different cultures and languages that was sparked when she started studying French at school. Although never able to take part in an exchange herself, in her teen years her family embraced the opportunity to host international students, an experience that she found to be very rewarding and still has lifelong relationships from.

Aubrey is a qualified teacher whose passion for travelling and learning about other cultures has led her on numerous overseas holidays and experience working in a variety of roles within the Tourism industry and International Education. This passion for travel and culture is something that Aubrey and husband take every opportunity to share and encourage with their two young children who they love to explore the world with.

Natalie’s love for travel was sparked by her flair for foreign languages, with a short 6-week exchange at 15 followed by a year-long high school exchange to Germany. These experiences shaped and changed her life, and established a life-long connection to Germany.

At university Natalie studied Spanish and French, with short exchanges to both countries, before settling to work as an economist in Sydney and later, London.

Natalie is passionate about high school exchange, firmly believing that it changes lives for the better, not only for individual students, but for all of the families involved.
Natalie now lives on the Gold Coast encouraging students and families to become involved in high school exchange. Her two eldest children are continuing the tradition of high school exchange in her family, heading to Spain and France later this year. Her family also enjoys hosting exchange students! In her spare time, Natalie enjoys cooking, long distance running and perfecting her languages.

Kate grew up in Adelaide and was very fortunate to have had the opportunity to travel the world during her childhood. In 2023, Kate took part in a semester exchange to Canada, where she made lifelong friendships and a strong connection with her host family. As Kate made friends with other European exchange students, she enjoyed immersing herself in other cultures whilst also learning to speak German. Since finishing school, Kate has continued to travel throughout Europe which reinforced her desire to work in this field.

Kate is very passionate about high school exchange programs and believes they are a life changing experience that builds confidence, resilience, and deeper sense of global connection.

Rose-Maree is a first-generation Australian with Italian parents and is passionate about her family. Rose-Maree’s daughter went on exchange to Italy in 2023 to learn the language, discover more about her heritage and have an opportunity to make lasting friendships for life.

Rose-Maree is a mum of 5 amazing young people, and with her husband, has hosted numerous students since her daughter’s exchange to Italy. She loves creating opportunities for young people to learn more about themselves and this beautiful country we call home. She is passionate about seeing young people thrive.

Having travelled to Europe and Asia from her youth, she has always had a love for discovering other cultures, food, people and places. She loves getting outdoors, hiking with family and friends, and spending time on Sydney’s beaches. Rose-Maree also loves to entertain and always has a home full of love, laughter and warmth.

Annika was born in the Netherlands, has grown up in Canberra and lived in France as an exchange student for 10 months. She had an incredible and life-changing experience meeting new people, attending a French school, trying new foods and travelling across the country! Annika’s family has also hosted exchange students from France and Italy.

As the Returned Student Coordinator, Annika hopes to keep students who have returned from their exchange programs engaged in the exchange community, making sure they have access to resources and support even once they are back in Australia. In her free time, Annika loves to play soccer, read, practice her musical instruments or learn more languages.

Sally grew up on a farm in country NSW. Her first trip overseas was for a University semester exchange program where she attended Washington State University, and completed a Bachelor of Early Childhood and Special Education. She travelled to Canada for a working holiday and stayed for three years in Quebec City where she learnt French (slowly).

She is passionate about the benefits of second language learning and packed her three young girls up and moved to France for 2 years when they were in primary school. Now almost adults her girls have completed their own reciprocal exchange with Students of the World. When Sally isn’t working you will find her at the beach ocean swimming or walking her labradoodle Lollie.

Antoinette grew up in New Zealand, before migrating to Australia for adventure and opportunities. She has lived in Sydney and Melbourne but has called Adelaide home for the last 30 years. She is the mother of 2 grown sons, and a proud grandmother, who is otherwise an empty nester dividing her time between the Students of the World office and exploring Australia by caravan with her husband.

She has a passion for travel and other cultures and plans to sometime soon, spend at least a few months travelling Europe visiting students she has previously hosted. She is the only member of the Students of the World Adelaide office team without a second language and hopes to one day be able to correctly pronounce the French word for “frog” and to not confuse the Italian word “scoraggiare” with “scoreggiare”.

Kerry has a love for travel, beginning with a short stay in South Korea before venturing off as an au pair in Italy after completing high school. Subsequent to this, Kerry moved to Thailand where she started up her own organisation involving the recruitment of English teachers into local schools. After twelve years, Kerry wanted to be closer to family and moved back to Adelaide with her two young boys.

She has completed a Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) and loves to go camping with her family when she’s not working.