It is the middle of yet another challenging semester where Melbourne remains in lockdown. Exams are looming and placements will soon be wrapping up for the year. Apart from small picnics with close friends, there are few other things besides falling COVID-19 cases to look forward to. However, the In2science team always have something up their sleeves. To lift spirits and connect with our outstanding community of volunteer university student mentors, we organised an online event that celebrated the enthusiasm, diverse experiences and incredible minds of this huge, multi-university family.
Forty-five mentors from La Trobe University, The University of Melbourne, Swinburne University of Technology, RMIT University and Monash University spent a Thursday evening online to partake in a few hours of laughter and friendly competition. The session was hosted by our talented University of Melbourne coordinators, Hayden Dalton and Julia Cleghorn, who began the proceedings by randomly creating small groups of mentors from our partner universities. This was a unique challenge for participants because it is a rare thing to partner up with people you don’t necessarily know in social gatherings. However, one of the amazing benefits of the In2science program is that it brings together like-minded individuals from multiple universities in a space to interact where they would not normally.
Each group created a team name and participated in games and quizzes to test their diverse general knowledge and STEM skills. The prize was worth competing for; UberEats vouchers and potential free dinners were at stake! Once the winning team was crowned the next item on the agenda was something the other In2science coordinators were not looking forward to.
For the remainder of the evening, each In2science University Coordinator was invited to share their university and STEM journey in one minute before throwing themselves at the mercy of the mentors in the room. Mentors were invited to ask anything of their coordinators, and In2science Director, Alison Every fielded the questions to an eager crowd.
Two hours went by in a blink of an eye. In2science mentors and coordinators learned much from each other and felt more connected than ever. For a few hours the challenges of the year were forgotten, and we were reminded of what we can look forward to when they are finally behind us.
Thank you to everyone who participated in our special event, it was a memorable experience that In2science hopes to replicate as soon as we can – and in person, too.
