Yvette Raymond - Rotary Club's nominee for National Youth Science Forum
Posted by Harry Bracegirdle
on Mar 30, 2015
The Rotary Club of Port Fairy sponsored local schoolgirl, Yvette Raymond, in attending the National Youth Science Forum (NYSF) that was held at the ANU in Canberra over twelve days in January 2015.
Yvette, who was selected from a strong field of nominees to attend the forum, spoke briefly to members of the Rotary Club at its Dinner meeting on 8th December 2014 before returning to the Club on 30th March 2015 to give an account of her experience at the NYSF.
Yvette (pictured below), a Year-11 student at Brauer College, wants to pursue a career in Medical Science and hopes to attend university to undertake a medical degree once she completes her secondary education. She is the second student in recent years to be sponsored by the Rotary Club to attend the NYSF.
Yvette gave an interesting presentation, supplemented by numerous photos of her trip to Canberra. She was one of 200 other students at the Forum and was fortunate to be able to get into her preferred stream of Biomedical Science. Whilst in Canberra she stayed at the Australian National University but also had one day billeted by a Rotary family in their home.
As part of the activities they had visits to the Australian War Memorial, and Parliament House. They also visited the Australian Sports Institute where they learned a lot about sports science. A good deal of time was spent in science lab specific activities including a pathology lab, the ambulance centre, an anatomy morgue, plasma labs and the medical science laboratories at the John Curtin School of Medical Research.
As part of the social activities at the Forum they were treated to a Rotary Dinner and a Science Dinner where dressing up in a “science theme” was the order of the day. In all, it was a great experience and she thanked the Rotary Club for their support in making it possible. The cost of attending the forum was covered by the Rotary Club with support from Yvette's father, Brian Raymond.
In response to questions, Yvette said that the NYSF experience had opened her eyes to all the different areas of science and this, in some way, made her choice of career path more difficult but one for which she is now better informed.
She still has a preference to pursue a medical career and hopes to study at Melbourne University after completing her VCE where she is currently studying Maths, Chemistry, Biology and Literature at Brauer College. Her aim at this stage is to perhaps pursue a career in paediatrics or obstetrics.
