On September 2, the Gifted & Talented and Academic Extension Classes of Year 9 attended a Murdoch Careers Taster day, where representatives from Murdoch attended and discussed a range of possible careers with the students – leaving the students buzzing with excitement about ‘what they want to be when they grow up’. The following are recounts from two Year 9 Gifted & Talented student leaders.
The Gifted and Talented class, along with the Academic Extension Classes, participated in multiple workshops to explore potential career paths for our future. These 4 workshops included graphic design, forensics science, marine biology and game design. Each workshop ambassador shared their own unique experiences while navigating us through their careers to-date. I loved how each presenter (current Murdoch students) weren’t afraid to reveal the challenges as well as their successes. This showed Melville students how everyone’s journey through university is different but enjoyable and that it’s completely normal to be unsure of what career you want to pursue.
All the classes were divided into 4 groups allowing each group to experience 3 of the workshops. Towards the end of the day, Murdoch had all the students who participated in the workshops complete a reflection where we discussed our passions, hobbies, likes, dislikes and how these factors can influence us to choose a career path that we will enjoy. Overall, this incursion with Murdoch University was an eye-opener for many of our students and hopefully helped to mould amazing career path for our future.
Bhavya Chaudry (Year 9 GAT Student Leader)
The Murdoch Career Taster Course Day was an enjoyable and informative experience for the 9GAT and 9AEC classes as we were able to learn about the different courses the Murdoch University Student Ambassadors had studied. We were presented with 4 topics: Marine Biology, Criminology/Forensics, Graphic Design and Game Creation.
It was a day filled with fun activities such: as learning how to rebrand and sell our school in the graphic design workshop; matching definitions to pictures and descriptions of sea creatures in the marine biology workshop; and, playing a variation of “Guess Who?” using forensic evidence and techniques. The presentations appealed to many of us in terms of careers and pathways providing us with more ideas to consider for studies beyond High School.
Overall, it was an amazing day, an enlightening experience and a stepping stone for many of the Gifted & Talented students. We would like to truly thank Murdoch University and especially their student ambassadors for an amazing experience for guiding and providing us with such valuable information.
Joel Gunasekaran (Year 9 GAT Student Leader)
