STEM will take me to NYC
By Ngoc Huynh, Year 12, Cairns State High School
I APPLIED for the 1000 Girls, 1000 Futures program through a friend’s recommendation at the end of last year.
Organised by the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS), the program is for girls around the world from 13-18 who are enthusiastic about STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).
The program is similar to a virtual camp — you get assigned a mentor while completing modules that help develop communication, leadership and critical thinking skills; and lots of opportunities to network with an amazing group of peers and scientists through different online events and competitions.
On top of that, participants are invited to attend a threeday global summit in New York City.
The conference unites students from various programs organised by NYAS — and they can be anywhere around the world.
The summit will be a mixture of workshops, field trips, poster fair and panel discussions. Most importantly, there are various competitions that you can participate in to earn a travel scholarship to the summit. I also participated in this year’s STEM essay competition where we were asked to write about a STEM hero (my choice was Dr Canan Dagdeviren, a Turkish engineer working on biomedical devices), which earned me a travel scholarship to the summit in July.
Inspired by the program and my STEM hero, my plan for the next five years is to continue studying engineering and science.
I also hope to be able to participate in different research projects alongside my studies in the future.
Any girls interested in this virtual program can visit the New York Academy of Sciences website for more information.
The academy also has two other programs, which includes boys, called The Junior Academy and United Technologies STEM U where you work together in a team, with people around the world, to solve real-world challenges.