Boston, Massachusetts is a long way from home for UC graduate Liam Searle but it is now a closer reality thanks to a world tour of top universities for first nations students, funded by the Aurora Education Foundation.
Twenty-two-year-old Liam, of Nicholls, was one of eight first nations students on the two-week tour, which aims to increase Indigenous Australian participation at top-tier universities (such as Harvard and New York University) and build the next generation of Indigenous leaders.
Of the students who apply, 94 per cent have been accepted to study at one of the universities they visited on tour. Let’s hope Liam, who has a Bachelor of Engineering in Network and Software Engineering with first class honours, gets to MIT University in Boston when he applies.
“I think it’s pretty important to see other Indigenous people in STEM because I went through my degree pretty much by myself studying in my field,” Liam says.
“The tour allowed us to have a bit of time to ourselves to become a part of the city and see what it’s like to live there. We got a chance just to have dinner, look around, explore, see student accommodation, student life on campus. I was very surprised in that I felt very comfortable, even though I was far away from home. It just makes me think that I’d just adapt, different cultures, different ways to do things – like tipping. It’s just so odd to me.”
Liam admits he’ll miss his mum, sister and two poodles but he has big plans “to give back to community”. Once he has completed two years of work experience, Liam plans to apply to MIT to complete postgraduate studies in computer science and engineering.
“Student life at MIT has a strong focus on education, they’ve very driven and very motivated because it’s a very competitive place to get into so everyone’s there with a real drive,” Liam says.
“If I have this opportunity, I want to show that we are capable of taking up things like this, not only just doing it, but succeeding well and doing a good job. Being able to come home and say you can actually do this. I did it so you can.”
Canberra Daily would love to hear from you about a story idea in the Canberra and surrounding region. Click here to submit a news tip.
