Ruby Walker

At the start of his year I was privileged enough to experience 10 days in Canberra apart of the 2019 National Youth Science forum. The experience was one that I would describe as inspiring, insightful and opportunistic. Because of nysf I have been opened to a whole new world of opportunity and have made some strong friendships who share my interests. I’ll never forget that beautiful Burgy lawn and the overly enthused blue staffies skipping, waving with glee to meet us all. It didn’t take long after experiencing an abundance of chants, withheld staffie secrets and extravagant performance during briefing to conclude that somehow, I had joined an obscure cult for science fanatics. Not that, I consider that a bad thing.

 Nysf hit all interest points for me and then some. Prior the trip, I was most keen on all thing’s environment as well as politics. I thrived off all our visits and got something out of each one that has helped me consider a range of options. The big takeaways for me was that science is mine and everyone else’s future, communication with science is key and politics plays a massive role for scientists when trying to move forward and develop as a nation.

  Our first trip was to parliament house and I loved it. We got to learn about how policies are formed, who is involved and the process of it all was a big yes from me.

With my interest group we did a trip to CSIRO where we spoke with Dr. Viv about his wild science career and what he does now at CSIRO. We also learned about Australia’s achievements in science and how we can be a part of that through, internships and research opportunities

Mulligans flat was. we saw that research can take place out in the sticks, and the importance of protecting our woodlands and the creatures that inhabit them and we got hands-on tracking an echidna

By far my favourite visit was with the university of Canberra getting a taste of applied ecology. We conducted our own bioassessment of a nearby lake and our results found that a new management effort to decrease the presence of heavy metals was working. We learnt a great deal about importance of good management of our environments, ways we scientist are working towards improving management with new technologies and concepts.

Aside from visits with our main group we attended lectures with renowned scientists. Gaining insights on pathways to be a scientist and where a career in science can take you. Dr Mark Howdens, lecture on climate change gave us some hard-hitting truths about the state of the world but also talk to us about how he got to do something he enjoyed for a career.

Other presentations given by the staffies provided us with a lot of inspiration and guidance for this year and thereafter. There were endless opportunities to speak with academics, scientists, Rotarians, university students at the visits, dinners and other events that were held.  It truly was a privilege to be surrounded by so many intellectual people happy to tell all about their work and little tricks and tips for life.

Amongst all the lectures and learning we managed to maintain plenty of social interaction with other students. Shopping together for the disco was a great wait to bond and getting kicked out of the centre for chanting only made us stronger. The disco, downtime, stem plus visits and more really made the experience even more heightened purely because we got to know each other so well and make some strong friendships.

Overall the whole experience only made me more excited for the future. I’m more passionate about my interest and feel like a line of directions for me have been solidified because of it. All the people I met were incredible and I’m am proud to call myself an NYSFer!