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Martha Swift

MENTEE: ADVANCE MENTORSHIP PROGRAM, 2018


Martha Swift is an Honours student in Literature within the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne.

During the undergraduate years of her degree, she qualified for a double major in English and History, as well as pursuing a vast array of electives, ranging from cosmology to art writing, economics to typographic design. Moving from Sydney to study at the University of Melbourne, Martha lived at Ormond College for the first two years of her degree, during which time she was actively involved in the student life of the college, serving as both the President of the Visual Arts Society and the Editor in Chief of the college’s student-run literary and academic anthology in 2015. She has received a variety of recognitions for her academic, creative, and community endeavours; to date, she is most proud of maintaining a position on the Dean’s Honours list throughout her degree and winning the Richard Gunter Prize for the highest achieving English Literature student in 2016.

In 2016, she completed an exchange at the University of Pennsylvania, where she also participated in programs at the distinguished Kelly Writer’s House and sat on the editorial committee of the student-run publication, Penn Review. Back in Melbourne, she has recently completed an internship at Meanjin and is currently volunteering at the 100 Story Building, an organisation dedicated to providing opportunities for creativity and literacy to marginalised young people in Melbourne’s inner west.

Having lived in Boston, Sydney, and Melbourne and participated in a variety of exchange and study abroad programs, Martha has always maintained a global perspective and international ambitions. Now, as a part of Advance’s global network and a 2017 mentee, she hopes to learn more about navigating the expanding world of business and how to bring her passion for creative expression into her budding professional life.