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ARTWORK: Natasha Tareen
alternative stem: fighting australia’s education inequity SASKIA O’GEORGE
By age 15, children from the lowest socioeconomic households are on average almost three years behind in school than children from the highest socioeconomic households. I learnt this fact when I became a student at ANU, and from there I began to dive further into the systemic problems within our education system. As a woman working in the Cyber and IT field, I have felt strongly about greater representation of females in these areas and it was shocking to discover how young Australians are suffering from a shortage in quality teachers in STEM. Australia’s future is deeply rooted in innovation, technology, medicine and science, but I can’t help but wonder how we expect to achieve this when youth outside of urban areas aren’t able to access these fields. I received the opportunity to interview Dr. Jennifer Pritchard, an ANU undergraduate and PhD alum, about her story, how she entered into STEM, and why she became a teacher. Q: What prompted you to study a STEM focused degree, and why at ANU?
A: I did earth science in years 11 and 12 at school in Canberra and I just loved it. I loved the field trips outdoors and I found it quite challenging which was definitely what I wanted. I actually started in environment and sustainability but I took an introductory geology course and just loved what it was about. At ANU, especially during my PhD, I had so many opportunities to do amazing things, like I got to visit Hawaii and look at all the volcanoes and see where all my samples had come from, so that was really cool. Q: As a woman, were you apprehensive about undertaking your studies in STEM? A: Initially not really because there were so many women in the undergraduate courses, but probably towards the end of my degree when career options started to be at the forefront of my mind and a lot of people started going into the mining industry. I felt at that time that the mining industry probably wasn’t somewhere where I would fit in or identify with, and I think that is to do with it being a male dominated industry.
