The IGS spirit lives on well beyond graduation. In this feature, we share the unique stories of three alums who have taken their learning into classrooms, research labs, remote communities and across continents.
HANAKO HOWARD SHIBUYA 2013
My experience at IGS and the positive relationships I had with all the primary, high school and language teachers had a huge influence on my own path to becoming a primary school teacher.
After spending a few years teaching in Sydney, last year I decided to have a bit of a sea change. I spent time living and working in a remote town in NSW called Goodooga, where I learnt so much from the incredible community there. In the latter half of the year, I lived and worked on the beautiful South Coast in Mollymook, where I also got married.
Teaching in such vastly different places challenged me, but also helped me form a greater appreciation for the profession and respect for all those who are part of it.
I hope to continue expanding my experience as a teacher in lots of places across Australia, but for now, my husband and I are based back in Sydney as we wait for our first baby to arrive.
I am still very close with my friends from school and remain in contact with many of my amazing teachers. I hope one day my child will be lucky enough to be immersed in language and culture and have the same positive experiences that I did.
LUKIAN ADAMS 2018
After graduating from IGS in 2018 I went straight into a degree in Biology and Marine Science at USYD. I fell in love with it straight away, and in 2023, I continued my studies with an honours thesis at UNSW, studying the impacts of dams on freshwater fish communities. During this time, I worked in a bunch of different jobs, including youth advocacy for the NSW government, working at a surf shop, and coaching the IGS Theatresports teams.
After five years of non-stop work and study, I decided to take a year off in 2024, and had the best three months of my life road-tripping around South Africa. I rode a lifetime of amazing waves, saw some stunning landscapes, and narrowly avoided a couple very sketchy situation.
In 2025, I said goodbye to Sydney and moved to the Surf Coast in Victoria to start a PhD at the University of Melbourne. I am continuing my work on freshwater ecosystems by looking at how fish use patches of cold-water habitat to protect themselves from climate change. This project will give me the opportunity to go out in the field and collect data on some of Australia’s most beautiful freshwater ecosystems, and I am hoping my findings can have a real impact on the future of Australian freshwater fish.
Outside of my studies, I am a keen surfer and fly fisher, and I get out on the water most days of the week. I still play the guitar and do some comedy gigs when I get the time, though the time doesn’t come to me as often as it used to these days. Either way, I am loving life, and wake up every day thrilled to be where I am!
Lyra Egan 2012
I left IGS in 2012 and went on to study a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, and a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish & Latin American Studies and Germanic Studies at USYD. I’ve always loved languages – particularly as I grew up speaking Spanish with my Colombian mother and grandmother- and IGS definitely set me up well for continuing formal language learning! After my undergraduate studies, I spent 4 months travelling around South America, which sparked my desire to pursue a career focused on substance use and mental health research. and then went on to do a Master of Public Health. That brought me to the Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use at the University of Sydney, where I initially worked as a Research Assistant on some of their large school-based prevention projects (including OurFutures, before going on to do my PhD. My PhD focused on preventing poor diet, alcohol use, tobacco smoking and vaping among adolescents from low socioeconomic and geographically remote backgrounds through digital interventions (with my research even taking me to Colombia!). I graduated in May this year, and currently work as a postdoctoral research associate at the Matilda Centre on a school-based digital vaping prevention program amongst >5000 secondary school students from 40 schools across NSW, QLD & WA.
