Student Achievements 

2022 International STEMist Essay Contest Winner – Mo Pham 

We are proud to announce that our very own Year 8 ACE student Mo Pham has been awarded first place for her submission in the Opportunity X 2022 International STEMist Essay Contest. In the contest students were expected to select a Scientist, Engineer, Mathematician, or Technologist from an underrepresented group in STEM and write a piece on their story and how that person inspires them. Mo took on the challenge and developed an interesting and inspiring piece. We are very proud of Mo and her endeavor to broaden our understanding of the underrepresented members of the STEM community! 

See Mo’s winning entry below -  

“Katherine Johnson, formally known as Katherine Goble, was a mathematician who has made her mark in history as the first black woman to work under NASA as a scientist. Katherine utilized her expertise in this field to help send astronaut John Glenn and many others into space. Born in 1918, Katherine had always been recognized for her amazing math skills at school, causing her to move up many years and graduate early. She went on to enroll in university and became a mathematician.  

In 1962, she was recruited to work as a scientist on John Glenn’s orbital mission project. This was Katherine’s most notable achievement in her whole career and was even recreated in a live action movie called Hidden Figures.  

Hidden Figures shows the hardships that Katherine and many other women of colour had to face while working with NASA during this time period. These hardships include not having similar opportunities to other Caucasian male scientists despite having higher qualifications. Because Katherine was the first black woman to work under NASA as a scientist, the building didn’t have any ‘coloured’ bathrooms that she could use. In the movie Hidden Figures, it shows Katherine having to walk 40 minutes to use a ‘coloured’ bathroom. But it has been said that Katherine actually snuck into the normal bathrooms at NASA. 

With Katherine’s calculations, the orbital mission was a success, gaining huge attention from all over the world. Katherine was finally acknowledged for her efforts and continued to perform calculations for NASA. Some of those notable calculations were for the Apollo 11 mission and the Space Shuttle mission. By the end of Katherine’s career, she had contributed to 26 research reports for NASA. 

At the end of 2015, Katherine Johnson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama himself. In 2016, NASA dedicated their Computational Building in honour of Katherine’s work in space travel.  Katherine and her story have made a huge impact on the world, and with the success of Hidden Figures, even more people have been inspired by her. Despite her passing in 2020, she has made her mark in space and racism history. 

I hadn’t heard of Katherine Johnson before I watched Hidden Figures for this essay. And I wasn’t aware of how bad the racism and sexism situations were back in the 1900s. Watching Hidden Figures and researching further on Katherine Johnson, I’ve come to learn that it’s worth pushing and striving for something even if it isn’t easy at the start. That’s exactly what Katherine did, and in the end, she didn’t just contribute to space travel, she changed the science and math industry for women of colour. Without Katherine Goble, I don’t believe that women of colour would be as accepted in the science and math industry if it weren’t for Katherine’s lifechanging work.” 

More information on the competition and other winners can be found at: https://www.opportunityx.org/2021-essay 

Mr. Pedro Mello 

STEM Learning Specialist 

VCE VET Music 1&2 Group Performances 16/02/2022 

On Wednesday Lunchtime, two bands from the VCE VET Music Class performed outside the Bunjil Centre to a large student audience. The Ahems played ‘Want You Back’ by the Jackson 5, while The Unsociables playedtheir cover of “ABCDEForget You” by Gayle. The audience chanted for one more song, and together the groups played an encore of “Mustang Sally” by the Commitments. It was a great day for a lunchtime gig, and we hope to do these more regularly throughout the year!