Our 2019 NYSF participant, Upani Mapala-Gamage presented a summary of her experiences at the Forum in January.
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Upani explained that the National Youth Science Forum (NYSF) is a not-for-profit organisation that runs a number of 12-day residential programs to encourage young people in their passion for science. It was originally formed by Rotary in collaboration with business and academic partners and has been operating for 36 years.Each year 600 particpants are selected from all over Australia, as well as a few from overseas. Each participant must be endorsed by a Rotary Club.
To gain Rotary Club endorsement of her application, she applied to three Clubs and the Rotary Club of Berwick was the first to reply.
After being selected at District interviews, Upani reported that she had been assigned to the residential sessions conducted at the University of Queensland. To ensure that she settled in to the residential College, she was assigned a "buddy" to whom she could turn to for advice.
To start the program, participants were divided into their special interest groups. Upani choose the "Environmental sustainability and ecology" group, as she is very interested in this area of science.
The subsequent program entailed:
- visits to science and technology related laboratories and facilities,
- lectures by keynote speakers,
- workshops,
- social events, and
- group activities to improve communication and presentation skills.
Upani was delighted to find that the participants weren't anti-social introspective nerds, as she had anticipated. Instead, they were really outgoing and fun-loving nerds and she thoroughly enjoyed the overall experience.
Upani thanked the Rotary Club of Berwick for all their support and she promised to keep us informed of her future career progression.
