GLOUCESTER High student Kylie Fitzgerald recently spent a week at Newcastle University attending the Girls’ Choices summer camp.
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Here she shares her experiences:
‘After arriving at the university I got my timetable, university shirts and my name marked off.
Before our activities started we met our house parent, chose our rooms, said goodbye to our parents and met the other girls in the house.
We all then moved to the big lecture room known as the nurse theatre with all the other houses.
All together there were 90 girls from across NSW.
We were split into three groups and our first activity was a survey about Girls’ Choices summer school.
We then had a very long welcome and induction. We also found out that our secret event on Wednesday night was a fashion parade called Waste as Art.
After the long introduction we went to the cafeteria to have dinner.
Our last event for the day was Waste as Art so we all went back to our houses and started to work on our fashion designs.
The girls in my house and I laughed and bonded over that period of time.
Monday morning was an early start at 6am. After getting changed we moved to breakfast then to muster.
Our first activity for the day was an interesting careers talk.
We moved to a small lecture room for the session.
Chloe gave a talk about her career and life. Then we moved into our separate groups for our next activity.
Rock and Water taught us useable self-defence moves and how to become powerful even when we are in vulnerable positions.
Our third activity was self reflection. In this session we talked to other girls in our group about our strengths.
After lunch we went to Bar Beach. We completed three activities at the beach.
The first was natural history illustration where we drew objects we picked up on the sand in a scientific way.
The next was a lifeguard talk followed by a quick swim.
Tuesday was another early start before a careers talk with Alexis who was a nutritionist and dietician.
We then went to psychology where we sat in a classroom and looked at different illusions while Liam, a student, explained what part of our brain makes them into illusions.
After morning tea it was pharmacy in the lab where we made paracetamol.
We then moved to engineering where we had to program little robots to move.
We had to make them knock over as many cups as possible, which was harder than it sounds.
After lunch we travelled by bus to the Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI).
We got to see certain work areas and spoke to some of the staff there.
Wednesday was another early morning and a careers talk with a lady who specialised in occupational therapy.
We learned about accounting from a man who clearly loved his job. After morning tea we had DNA session in a lab.
We had to take DNA from a fake crime scene and DNA from five suspects and test the samples to see who the criminal was.
We then went to physics where we played with a singing rod.
The friction from our fingers moving along the rod would make a high pitched noise.
The last activity of the day was the Waste as Art fashion parade.
Each house showed off its artwork while the MC talked about what each piece of the dress represented.
There was a live music and everyone was up dancing and singing.
Thursday was the last day and after breakfast and muster we moved to self-reflection.
We then met up with the other groups for the careers fair where students and teachers at the university answered our questions about certain courses, such as what ATAR we would need and how long the degree would be.
The closing speaker for the camp was Australian Paralympian Christie Dawes, who came to talk to us about her life.
Christie’s motto was ‘no means go’.
Girls’ Choices opened my eyes to the different careers in life and what university is like.
The camp was interesting, fun and enjoyable.
Everyone was very active, there was good food and I have made friends for life.’