WISE Program

During the school holidays in January, our team, Tyana Tsai, Jade Leung, Felicity Edmondson and Vivienne Carey, went on a trip to Silicon Valley in California as part of the prize that we won from the Monash University Women in STEM and Entrepreneurship (WISE) Program. This prize was a ten-day trip and innovation tour, led by The Hacker Exchange team and organizers from Monash University, that helped us to develop our business idea further and build on skills such as leadership and networking that will help us to be future-ready.

We visited big, tech companies like Google, Airbnb, Thunkable, Tile, Culture Amp, and the NASA Ames Research and Development Facility. It gave us an insight on what a career in technology might look like and the different ways that we can use technology. We heard talks from angel investors and venture capitalists, female entrepreneurs, and a public speaking coach. We had workshops and self-reflection sessions to help us develop self-leadership and to work effectively as a team.  All the skills that we had developed during the trip prepared us for a Meet and Greet networking event, where we met Monash alumni who are based in San Francisco and presented our business pitch idea to them. It was the first time we had been to a big networking event like that where we were surrounded by inspiring young adults who were industry experts, so it was quite nerve-wracking for us, but we can all say that the networking event was a valuable experience where we made many new connections. At the end, we had the opportunity to summarize everything we’d learned about the industry and ourselves in a video which we shared with the other team and it made us realize what an unforgettable experience it was.

Apart from all that work that we were doing, we also made sure to take breaks and have fun exploring the beautiful city of San Francisco together. One of the best parts of this trip was getting to know the members of the other winning team from McKinnon College, our mentors and tour leaders better. We saw the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge and learnt about its history - where the big takeaway was that you can make the impossible possible - from our enthusiastic tour guide CJ. We also got an insight into life as an American college student on our tour of Stanford University and an American high school student at Upsprings. We learnt a lot about the history of the city throughout the trip but particularly on a bus tour to Muir Woods. One of our highlights was our trip to Alcatraz Island where we had an audio-guided tour of the famous prison and learned of its significance to the Native American people.

There are so many people we would like to thank, from Chris Gonsalvez - Monash representative at the WISE Program, Jaclyn and Jeanette from the Hacker Exchange, Danielle at the Victorian Space Science Education Centre, our personal university mentor Sally Yik and Melanie Linden, and the STEM crew here at MGC - especially the absolute legend Ms Keen - whose support has been absolutely fantastic. Between advice on our Hand 2 Heart glove project, to helping supply parts, you guys have been such an amazing help as we have gone out into the world of applied technology and discovered some amazing opportunities. We would also like to thank all our parents for their endless patience and support as we produced our prototype through multiple rounds of competition. All of you have been fantastic!

This trip will surely be hard to beat.