The University of Queensland's Women in Engineering (WE) team has joined forces with community organisation Engineers Without Borders (EWB) on a rural road trip across Queensland's Darling Downs, sharing valuable insights about careers in STEM with high school teenagers from the bush.
Through hands-on activities and presentations, the team of young engineers are visiting high school students in Chinchilla, Goondiwindi and Warwick.
Opening up the exciting world of engineering, the presentations will focus on how engineering really is all around us, and the potential for students to make positive change in a world that is increasingly relying on renewable energy, innovative food technologies, sustainable mining and new forms of medical technology.
UQ WE ambassador Matilda Meppem is in her third year of civil engineering. She came to Brisbane after growing up in the bush in Meandarra, in Queensland’s Western Downs Region.
“Coming from a property I was constantly building sheds, fixing bikes and loved being hands-on in a practical way of solving and manipulating materials and designed to best suit the needs of the situation,” she said.
“At school I wasn’t the best at maths but I enjoyed solving the problems and when looking at career pathways, engineering stuck out to me because I could combine two of the things that I loved doing: building and being hands-on and maths.”
The UQ Regional Roadshow wraps up today (Wednesday 1 May, 2019) in Warwick with visits to Warwick State High School and Warwick School of Total Education.
