Shadow a Scientist

Under the Shadow a Scientist programme, AWIS will invite Year 12 or Year 13 students from South Auckland schools, via the Health Science Academy programme, to attend the conference and pair them with a mentor for the first day of the conference. During the conference there are a number of opportunities, for example lunch and tea breaks, for the students to get to know their mentor and to meet other females working in the science sector. 

Through this engagement, the students will build a better understanding of the career paths available to them, and also get to know a female scientist personally over the course of the conference. There is no expectation that this relationship will continue beyond the conference, although we would be glad to hear if it does!

As part of the programme, the students will be asked to create both a summary of what they experienced at the conference and a profile of their mentor, in either written or multimedia form. AWIS will share these stories via the AWIS website and social media, providing other students with information, created by their peers, about being a female in science and the opportunities available to them.

AWIS is very grateful to the New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO for providing funding for the Shadow a Scientist programme and to the Health Science Academy programme. We are also grateful for any WiS registering for the conference who agrees to be a mentor in the programme.