My wish for you in science and health research

Inspiring Women in Science and Health – My wish for the future is….

The future of women’s leadership and influence in health and science careers is looking bright with girls and staff from three east coast schools coming together to participate in I-WiSH 2024. I-WiSH stands for Inspiring Women in Science and Health and the goal of the event is to allow girls to hear directly from PhD students and academics about their current research. Dr Louise McCuaig, the dynamic director of the Flinders Discovery Institute, the research centre at Matthew Flinders Anglican School, located at Buderim on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, has been running this unique event for a number of years in collaboration with two Science Heads of Department, Mrs Emmie Cossell and Mr John Fitzgerald. I-WiSH is well-positioned to make a unique impact on girls’ career directions in science and health research.

In this truly collaborative event, Pymble Ladies’ College and St Catherine’s, Toorak, Melbourne, each took a group of Year 10 students to represent our schools and to learn about I-WiSH from the staff and students of Flinders. The girls learnt about cutting edge research in areas as diverse as dark matter, mapping kelp forests, women’s reproductive health, urban cooling, pharmacy information literacy and the neuroscience of paediatric pain. Students selected a topic to explore more deeply and worked with the researcher to create a change strategy relating to the topic. The winning team developed a series of infographics to communicate key conversation starters relating to medicine prescriptions with doctors and patients. Their lead academic was PhD student, Megan Deldot, who is studying in the School of Pharmacy (University of Queensland) with Professor Lisa Nissen. Lisa is a Professor in Pharmacy Practice and one of Australia’s leading pharmacy and medicine policy developers. The group was fortunate to spend additional time with Professor Nissen during a visit to the University of Queensland campus on the third day of the event.

A highlight of I-WiSH was the words of wisdom the academics gifted the students. They offered advice for the girls’ future careers in science and health, including, ‘I wish you can find a space where you can create impact- whatever that space may be’, ‘Don’t stress- there are so many pathways to get to where you want to be’, and, ‘Once you graduate, give yourself a chance to learn and grow. There will always be plenty of time to undertake the research you love and are passionate about’.

Congratulations to the following students for being Pymble’s pioneer group to experience I-WiSH: Isabella, Tia, Emelia, Melody, Adison, Lena, Karzan, Wyntah, Lucy and Cindi. Thank you to the staff who accompanied the group: Dr Bunny, Ms Kitto, Mrs Shaw and Dr Loch.

The team at Matthew Flinders Anglican College are leading in their commitment in this field and we gratefully recognise the inspirational work of Dr Louise McCuaig, Ms Emmie Cossell, Principal Ms Michelle Carroll and Head of Science, Mr John Fitzgerald.

The Pymble Institute is very excited about running our own I-WiSH next year as a way of making research even more relevant for school students. The Pymble event aims to utilise our connections with First Nations women, including parents of First Nations students at the College, who are working in science and health, and pairing NAIDOC Week and National Science Week celebrations. Contact Sarah if you would like your girls (from all girls or co-educational schools in the Sydney area) would like to participate in our 2025 event.