STEPS - Library - Central Queensland University

Part Three: The student learning journey
The next story also demonstrates the respect one student had for
Dr Jeanne McConachie. 255
Jeanne remembers walking into a bottle shop to buy a bottle of wine as she
was going out to dinner that night. She was in a rush and failed to observe
there was a long line of people, alcohol under their arms, waiting to be
served as she approached the counter, head down, card out, ready to pay.
There were loud grumbles from the queue as Jeanne presented her bottle of
wine. The man behind the counter, who just happened to be six feet tall
with broad shoulders (he obviously was a frequent attendant at the local
gym) bore down on Jeanne and then loudly shouted to his angry customers.
‘There’s no queue here for this lady’. There was prompt silence from the
line. The man behind the counter was an ex-STEPS student.
Interconnectedness and perpetuation
As we transform, we contribute to the transformation of all systems
of which we are a part — from families, workplaces and
communities to our country and the very planet itself.
These words by Carol Pearson, an archetypal psychologist and author of
The Hero Within, have influenced the STEPS philosophy. The
transformations of students do impact on the people in their inner circles —
often dramatically. These people, in turn, impact on others, and the positive
spiral continues. 256
Many students, by completing the STEPS program, positively influence
their families in more ways then one. Jody Galdal remembers:
The STEPS program has changed the life of my daughter. It is a
funny story. Each Tuesday night I would leave her and her dad to
fend for themselves. Unbeknownst to me, my husband cooked
sausages ‘every’ Tuesday night for a year. Our daughter now refers
to Tuesday as Sausage Tuesday and will not consume sausages —
even at barbecues. It has become her and her dad’s own little
memory. It reminds me of the wonderful times at STEPS when I
hear this. Their relationship grew in my absence and it makes me
smile to think STEPS changed their lives as much as it did mine. 257
Family members see the fruits of their sibling’s or parent’s labour and, in
many cases, choose to follow in their footsteps and enrol in the STEPS
program. In one year, there were two sisters, two husband and wife teams,
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