Hi there my name’s Tenielle, aka Wombat and I’m super excited to be working as a MindJam Mentor! I have a background in the military, education, cyber security and esports.

I first realised gaming could be used as a learning tool in 2018 when teaching English overseas. It was a Monday afternoon and this week’s chapter was called: Video Games. Next thing I know my usually quiet, reserved and neurodivergent students were chorusing answers across the room, dashing to the whiteboard to fill in gaming titles and standing up in front of their peers to give a speech in English about their favorite game. It was so amazing to witness, I basically rewrote the remaining content of the term to include video gaming concepts and materials into each lesson. 

Upon returning to Australia I have coordinated a number of high school esports tournaments from the University of Queensland’s QLD LoL Championships, XP Esports High School League, META HSE and helped develop state funded programs where we use ‘esports’ as the ‘hook’ to get young people interested in things like coding, design, audio-visual, marketing and much more.

Aside from gaming I’m also a fitness coach, Latin dance teacher and have experience with play-by-play casting for SEA DOTA 2 tournaments.

I live with 2 free-loaders called Paddy and Buck, they don’t pay any rent and expect pats, walks and food every single day.  I am fully safety checked and have completed my safeguarding training.  Additionally, I’m certified in understanding Anxiety and Stress in children and young people, Data Protection and Online safety.  I have training and experience working with autistic young people, PDA, ADHD and SEN.