Ian Insley, Principal, Chinchilla State High School

The young women in STEM event held earlier this year at Chinchilla State High School was an inspirational event for the young women in our school, and other schools across the region. The event had guest speakers present in our school and those who could not be present were stream via zoom. This whole event was streamed to another eight schools. The guest speakers spoke of their STEM-based subjects. We imagined that the students might find the event interesting and that they might learn about new careers in STEM, but we never envisaged how they would be networking with the guest speakers or how it would influence their future career choices Students spoke with wild enthusiasm of the event for weeks following.

I strongly support the continuation of the event into the future. Young women in STEM is a meaningful event with long-term benefits for the young women in State schools, who do not live in metropolitan areas where access to quality guest speakers is readily available. I believe, because of the event in 2020, that this event will lead more young women to choose STEM-based careers into the future.