The City recently helped send a group of talented local students to NASA to represent Australia on the STEM world stage – where they placed second overall and saw one of their own receive the Anita Gale Creative Genius Award.
The five Perth Modern students each received a Youth Achievement Grant from the City to represent the country at the International Space Settlement Design Competition (ISSDC) – held at NASA Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
The ISSDC is a high school STEM competition which brings together teams from across the globe to design a futuristic space settlement in an industry environment.
The Australian team was the first fully public-school team to represent the country with 15-year-old, Oceana Oakley, bringing home the Anita Gale Creative Genius Award.
As part of the competition, the students were teamed up with other countries, collaborating with Uruguay, Mexico, America and India. They also attended technical sessions and heard from expert guest speakers.
Beatrice Chong was part of the group that travelled to NASA and said the most valuable part of experience was the opportunity to work with like-minded students in different countries.
“A lot of them are very high achieving students who have a lot of experience with international competitions, so this has allowed us to learn so much from them and form lifelong connections,” she said.
“This whole competition has been an experience we will never forget, and we owe this all to our sponsors who have enabled us this opportunity. On behalf of the team, I’d like to once again thank you [the City] so much for all the support you’ve provided us.”
Mayor David McMullen congratulated the students on their efforts and success.
"Representing Australia in an international competition of this calibre is a remarkable achievement in its own right. But for the team to place second overall, with one of the team members winning an individual award for creative genius, is outstanding," he said.
"There is every reason to be incredibly proud of this success. The students' innovation, and dedication to the advancement of space technology, will undoubtedly equip them to make some significant impacts in the future. My congratulations to the team."
The students who received a Youth Achievement Grant to help them get to NASA were Beatrice Chong, Hong Liang Chua, Oceana Oakley, Ishika Balram and Seneja Willamune.
The City’s Youth Achievement Grants are for residents aged between 12 and 25 to support their participation in events or programs for professional or personal development. You can learn more about the grants
here.