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Wednesday, 14 July 2010

An activity encouraging debate about clean water and social justice, designing a racing car, and plastering a limb are some of the varied projects on offer at The University of Western Australia during this week's Indigenous secondary school students' camps.

Aimed at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, the camps attracted almost 60 young people from the metropolitan area as well as remote and regional WA including Albany, Broome, Bunbury, Darwin, Geraldton, Halls Creek, Hedland, Kalgoorlie, Karratha, Kununurra, Laverton, Newman and Wickham.  The camps are part of UWA's Follow the Dream Program which encourages Indigenous students to aim for university.

Organised by UWA's School of Indigenous Studies, the camps are in two streams: science and engineering; and health careers.

The science and engineering students will be introduced to chemistry; Motorsport;  Engineers Without Borders; environmental systems engineering; electrical, electronic and computer engineering;  the Science library;  and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research.

The health careers students will visit UWA's Oral Health Centre; the Clinical Training and Education Centre ;  the School of Sport Science and Exercise Health;  and various other areas including physics, chemistry and the Anatomy Museum.

The school students are mentored by Indigenous role-models such as 19 year-old first-year Medicine student Jordan Ah Chee.

Jordan attended primary school in Derby before moving to Kelmscott Senior High School where in Year 9 he joined Follow the Dream.

Photographs available.

Media references

Brendon De Gois (School of Indigenous Studies Student Services Officer)  (+61 8) 6488 3847
Janine MacDonald (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 5563  /  (+61 4) 32 637 716

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