Women in Innovation: Hannah Taylor

What are you working on?

Since 2019 I’ve been running and expanding the Tutor Canberra private tuition service within Canberra and the surrounding regions. In early 2020, I made the frightening and exciting decision to purchase a 42-seater bus and turn it into a portable tutoring studio for the students of Canberra. The Tutor Canberra bus is being designed to look, feel, smell and sound like a motivating space for students in various stages of their academic growth.
The bus is a space for:

• Students who have fallen out of love with the academic process
• Students who don’t have a dedicated space to effectively study at home
• Students who can benefit from an academic mentor and a space to bond with fellow individuals who’re ready to focus on all the benefits of studying to understand

Further, the space will be available during school hours to be utilised by families with young students as a space for parents/guardians to connect and for their youngsters to make friends and learn with their local families.

Why is innovation important to you?

Innovation can be a frightening hurdle when change is already uncomfortable, but do we remember at which point in our lives change is constantly happening? It’s during our academic years. It is for this reason that I am dedicated to creating a space that acts as a pocket of calm in the turbulent times of Canberran students. Students of all ages. Students of all cultures. Effective and healthy study habits and approaches are like numbers, they cross boundaries that other areas of life seem to get caught against.
My mission is to break the mold of academic formation and offer something different. Something that is full of empathy, compassion and support rather than mark driven goals. We teach once we know our students and what makes them excited and energised. We help our students learn to understand rather than learn to know.

What drives you to make a difference?

In all honesty, I want to get to my death bed and look back on my life being able to smile at the decisions I made and the lives I positively impacted. There is no greater well of happiness than the well we share with and offer to others. If I’m able to help students and tutors:

• realise their full potential,
• form positive relationships with each other and with study, and
• understand the intricacies of subject matter and, indirectly, life,

then I have served a purpose with my time and energy on this planet. I want to inspire those around me to challenge the mould. I want to create a trend where being kind and helping each other succeed is associated with the Canberra student community.

Do you have any advice for getting more women into the innovation ecosystem?

Progress not perfection. I constantly find myself tripping forward, and the best advice I can give is to analyse every mistake and jump at any and every opportunity to develop personally or to help others grow.
Trying new and big things can be very lonely, so make sure you surround yourself with people who will remind you of your strengths and your goals.

What are you proud of right now?

I am proud of the fear-based and shame-based hurdles I have overcome in the last two years. I’ve thrown caution to the wind and decided that life is too short to dwell on my weight or my salary or what other people think. Over the time spent working full-time on Tutor Canberra (about 9 months now), I’ve come to realise that money can only make you so happy. Though money makes life more convenient to live, it’s the relationships you make and the impact you choose to have on the vulnerable lives around you that can really begin to shape you.