The first student, Elly Chamberlain, attended the National Youth Science Forum from January 10 to January 25 and reported that whilst she still planned to study Medicine, the program was very helpful in expanding her horizons and exposing her to other options such as Industrial Design and Biochemistry. She also appreciated the opportunity to meet people and made some good contacts. Elly said that she could not have attended without the financial support of Hawthorn Rotary and that she is most appreciative.

Sasha Folley attended the Marine and Freshwater Discovery Centre at Queenscliff on January 18 and was also very appreciative. The course included various lectures followed by a snorkelling exercise and she said that it  gave her an understanding of the jobs available in Marine Science and led her to believe that she could best pursue these interests in years to come at Deakin University. Science has always been her favourite subject.

Other Santos Experience Programs

Hawthorn Rotary is sponsoring two two other students to attend the Santos Experience University of Melbourne program in April. This is a 3 day program designed to show just how broad science can be and covers a range of disciplines including IT and Data Science, Chemistry, Health Sciences, Environmental Science and Engineering.

There are  a further 9 Santos Outreach programs on offer and we will be reviewing the merit of these with the school.

Mock Interviews

We will be resuming Mock Interviews this year and in discussions with the school have agreed on a number of measures to ensure that they can be conducted safely. These include:

   * Interviews are are to be conducted over two days to increase social distancing

   * Students and Interviewers will be masked, except when eating or drinking.

   * Interviewers to be supplied N95 masks for maximum protection.

   * The Interview space will have air purifiers.

   * The Interview space will be ventilated via external windows or a new heating/cooling system.

   *In the event that the Covid situation worsens the Interviews will be conducted online.

The interviews are scheduled to take place on April 6 and 7 and on September 14 and 15. The support of members as Interviewers is needed, and appreciated, especially since student numbers this year have increased. Please make yourself available if you can.

Foundation Scholarships

We are now sponsoring two Foundation Scholarships; the second insalment of our 2021/2022 scholarship and a new scholarship for 2022/2023. The purpose of these grants is to encourage talented and motivated young people facing financial difficulty, to complete their year 11 and 12 secondary education.

RYPEN

We have invited the school to nominate up to 3 students, who are interested, and who the school thinks will benefit, to attend a weekend camp at Doxa Malmsbury, from March 25 to March 27.The camp is promoted a providing an experience of ideas, problems,and social experiences that assists students in forming their own values and moral standards, and allows them to broaden their horizons culturally, socially and academically .

Challenge by choice is an important aspect of the program experience.