Stories · Impact · 2026

From Sleeping Rough to Exercise Science: Oswald's Story

How mentoring, financial assistance and one good question helped a student turn survival into a career.

At fifteen, Oswald made a decision no young person should have to make. Home had stopped being safe, so he left, because sleeping rough felt less dangerous than staying.

He was in Year 10 at the time. He kept turning up to school through all of it, sitting exams and handing in homework while working out where he would sleep that night and how he would feed himself. Teachers noticed he was barely staying afloat. Support started to gather around him slowly, and that was when A Start in Life came into the picture.

When Someone Finally Asked What He Was Interested In

Through our Career and Skills Development mentoring program, Oswald was matched with a mentor and given financial assistance to take some of the pressure off. What mattered just as much was the question his mentor asked him: what are you interested in?

The answer, it turned out, was fitness. It started as something to do, one small part of his life he could control when almost nothing else felt within reach. Then it became more than that. Training gave him structure, and structure gave him room to think.

He noticed his anxiety settling. He was sleeping better and had more energy for school. The connection between moving his body and steadying his mind was not something he read about in a pamphlet. He was living it.

“I thought it was just something to do. But when I started exercising regularly, something shifted. My anxiety got quieter, I could focus on school, and I felt stronger, not just physically.”

Oswald, A Start in Life student

From Survival to a Career in Exercise Science

By the end of Year 10, fitness was no longer just helping Oswald get through the week. It was pointing somewhere. He wanted to understand the science behind the thing that had steadied him, and then use it to help other people find the same.

Oswald is now studying a Bachelor of Exercise Science at university and training with a coach. He is building genuine expertise in something he cares about, on his way to becoming someone who understands the link between physical and mental wellbeing from the inside out.

Why Education Support Works Best When It Starts With the Student

Around one in five university students report experiencing mental health challenges, and for young people who have lived through housing insecurity that figure climbs higher. Counselling and clinical care matter enormously. So does the quieter work of helping a young person find their own source of strength.

For Oswald it was fitness. For another student it might be art, music, coding or volunteering. The common thread is support that treats a young person as someone with potential worth exploring, rather than a set of circumstances to be managed.

Oswald did not need someone to hand him a future. He needed someone to back him while he found it.