Girl Power in Engineering and IT Program
The ‘Girl Power in Engineering and IT’ program is a fully funded, four-year initiative run by the University of Melbourne. The program spans from Year 9 through to Year 12, and encourages young women to pursue pathways in the fields of engineering, IT, mathematics and science. This year, following a competitive selection process, we were selected to partake in the program, within a group of 40 girls from Victoria. This July, we participated in the first of the three stages of the program: the camp. The camp ran across four days during the school holidays, and was held at the University of Melbourne (Parkville campus) and University Residential College. During this time, we had the opportunity to be involved in various activities related to engineering and IT, form new friendships and connections, and experience a taste of university life.
A few of our favourite activities included:
- A workshop in Uni Melb’s Creator Space where we designed, cut and produced our own glider planes.
- A visit to the workshop of the Melbourne University Racing (MUR) team. During the visit, we had the opportunity to see the workshop, have a sneak peak of what the team is working on for this year’s competition, meet students from the team and learn about how they design and build their cars from scratch.
- A hands-on task with SiRe (Students in Renewable Energy - a student-led club at Uni Melb). The activity required us to work collaboratively to create a floating wind turbine with only a small, selective amount of materials.
The Panel evening:
On the third night of the camp, we had the chance to meet some experts from a variety of different careers within Engineering and IT. In the first part of the event, the panelist guests were asked questions by the host and by girls in the audience, while the second part of the evening allowed for one on one conversations between the girls and the experts.
Here are some of our highlight panelists:
- Dr. Kelly is a chemical engineer with a Bachelor of Science-Engineering, currently specialising in aerospace at Boeing. Learning about her journey to become an engineer by exploring different pathways and jobs gave us the opportunity to learn more about the industry, possible courses and career pathways post university. Hearing from someone with firsthand experience was very inspiring. The guidance she provided is something we can and will definitely take with us into the future!
- Dr Brooke Farrugia is a biomedical engineer and Professor at the University of Melbourne. She works particularly on the medicine aspect of biology and has worked on fascinating technologies like spray on skin! Throughout the evening, we learnt about how she built her career, challenges she faced along the way, and received some great advice on study and life in general. Overall her story was very inspiring because of her incredible career and her thoughtful way of communicating her experiences.
As well as these women, the Panel was full of other incredible engineering and IT specialists each with their own valuable individual experiences.
Overall, the Girl Power in Engineering and IT program was an incredible experience. If you are interested in applying for 2027, click here to learn more about what the camp entails. We highly recommend the program to all girls with an interest in STEM, as it is an educational and extremely fun way to learn more about what STEM involves. Our stay was something we will never forget. We look forward to what the next stages of the program have to bring!
Finally, a HUGE thank you to Ms Upham who so kindly wrote our letters of recommendation. We are extremely grateful for the time and effort you put into them, and also your generosity in providing us with guidance going into the interview stage. Thank you so much!
Daisy McQuestin and Leonie Paquaux
Year 9
