Following on from our excellent experience last year, Merici was again offered the opportunity to take three students to the 2018 Women in Aviation/Aerospace Australia summit at the National Convention Centre. Emma Howse and Sarah Carstens (Year 10) and Natasha Silver (Year 12) were sponsored by Lockheed Martin and attended with me. Emma and Sarah are part of Merici’s engineering elective and are looking ahead to aerospace-related careers. Natasha aspires to be a pilot and is planning a career in aviation.
The thrust of the summit was to share and discuss initiatives that encourage greater gender diversity in aviation and aerospace engineering. We heard from Kate Munari, the only Australian woman so far to fly with the UK’s commando helicopter force, and from several aerospace and aeronautical engineers on their careers and the type of work they do. One panel discussed collaboration between industry and education and how girls can be encouraged to see STEM subjects as genuine career areas from an early age. Another panel discussed stories of couples with young children sharing the responsibility of childcare so that both parents can maintain their careers.
The summit gave us the chance to hear talks from leaders in industry, government and the airforce and to make connections with a variety of people. There was significant interest from other attendees in the Merici students and in our engineering course, and we were able to make some valuable contacts. We are looking forward to an exciting future at Merici for STEM in general and the Engineering elective in particular.
Sarah wrote afterwards:
“I had an amazing time at the summit and met some pretty amazing people. A definite highlight for me would be talking to Kate Munari. Kate is a Helicopter pilot for the Navy and served in Afghanistan as part of the Commando Helicopter Force. She served as the aircraft captain and the formation commander as well as being the only woman among 150 men. Hearing her speech inspired me and she is definitely someone I look up to.”
Emma wrote:
“The WA/AA Summit was an amazing opportunity. I was introduced to successful women working in the aerospace and aviation industries. These introductions have already enabled me to commence developing a network of successful women who are passionate about supporting young women to pursue careers within the aviation / aerospace and STEM industries. In a word, it was ‘awesome’. I left the conference inspired and motivated to continue pursuing a career in science!”
Dr Kathryn White
Science Teacher
Photo caption:
School and university students and defence force mentees who were sponsored to attend the 2018 WA/AA Canberra summit. Merici people include Dr Kathryn White (second from left), Sarah Carstens and Emma Howse (third and fourth from left) and Natasha Silver (eighth from left). On the right are Linda Spurr (Deputy Chair of Aviation/Aerospace Australia) and Vince di Pietro (CEO of Lockheed Martin). Also present are ex-Merici students Zara Noake and Chante Swart, now with the air force and ADFA respectively.
