Mabel Chen is an In2science mentor at Preston High School and studying a BSc (Mathematics) at RMIT University.
You know that feeling of not knowing what you want to do, but wanting to do and be everything? That is what In2science mentor Mabel Chen says still hasn’t gone away years after graduating high school.
Mabel was a “pretty stock standard” student who achieved good grades until she stopped engaging, her school attendance dropped and her dream of becoming a mathematician was almost crushed.
Not one to give up on her ambition, however, that 14-year-old girl grew up to study mathematics at RMIT University and mentor students at Preston High School with In2science. When asked what Mabel loves about maths, she says it’s how extensive it is. In fact, trying to pin down something specific was difficult, “I love literally EVERYTHING about maths! It’s huge and all-reaching”.
Studying maths isn’t all about geometry and calculus, though. Mabel credits RMIT University for teaching her coding, one of the most valuable skills she has acquired this year. Coding is everywhere, “not just in the selection criteria of new jobs, but it even pops up in the casual conversations at weekend parties (or at least at mine!)”.
For Mabel, maths feeds the “innate curiosity that we’re all born with” and that feeling of wanting to do and be everything? The most important advice Mabel has is that if you feed that curiosity and “go with it…good things will happen”.
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