A year in the life of a young Australian

Volume 9 Number 2 February 11 - March 10 2013

Marita Cheng has completed a whirlwind year as Young Australian of the Year. She reflects on her experiences and what is coming up next. 

In 2008, I founded Robogals as a response to there being so few women in my engineering classes. The organisation is run by university student volunteers and we visit schools to run robotics workshops and speak to girls about careers in engineering. I started Robogals with no money and few resources. Now, Robogals is a thriving international not-for-profit organisation with 17 chapters in four countries. On the eve of Australia Day last year, I was named the 2012 Young Australian of the Year.

In late January 2012, I arrived in Canberra from Portugal and attended the welcome dinner at the Governor-General’s house. I met the Prime Minister for morning tea at the Lodge and had lunch with Australia Day sponsors. 

What an honour to be named the Young Australian of the Year! I hit the ground running as I skipped the official dinner, doing interviews instead; at my hotel by 11pm and up at 4am for more media. The highlight of the day was sailing into Sydney Harbour with Geoffrey Rush (who had been named Australian of the Year) witnessed by a crowd of over150,000 people.

Robogals was never far from my mind. I flew back to the UK the next morning to conduct the Robogals annual conference in the UK, then to Boston the day after to continue interviewing people for my 2011 Nancy Fairfax Churchill Fellowship to study “strategies to get girls interested in science, engineering and technology”.

Over the next six weeks, I visited another seven cities for my Fellowship research and held the first Robogals USA conference at the California Institute of Technology.

Back in Melbourne in March and 20 speaking engagements were waiting for me including an appearance on a Japanese TV show. I was flying interstate about two to three times a week. In between travel, visits, panels and talks, I completed work on my final-year project.

August was my biggest month of the year with “Tours of Honour” organised for the Australian of the Year Awards winners. I did a week-long tour of Perth and Kalgoorlie with the Australia Day Council and got to see the Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines (KCGM) Super Pit! 

The week after, I visited Sydney, Brisbane and Toowoomba with Geoffrey Rush. Then over to Perth for the Launch of National Science Week (I’m a National Science Week Ambassador.) It was a week of over 30 radio interviews including a trip to Sydney to be on air with Dr Karl for the whole hour.

August concluded with the Australia Day Council Tour of the Northern Territory starting in Darwin, to Katherine, Tennant Creek and Alice Springs, before returning home. That trip was eye opening and my favourite leg of the tour. Back home from the tours, I studied for my two mid-semester tests and worked on my final year project. 

October was all about Endeavour, the showcase of Engineering final year projects. After Endeavour, I went to Canberra for the Prime Minister’s Awards for Science. While there, I met with Education Minister Peter Garrett and shared my thoughts on how to encourage girls to enter engineering. I passed all my subjects and managed to do well on my project.

In December, I went to China for two weeks to commemorate the 40 Years of Diplomatic Relations between China and Australia. I visited universities, gave speeches, taught robotics, toured factories and attended banquets; five cities in 10 days. 

I never in my wildest dreams thought that I would be Young Australian of the Year, and I’m still surprised when I think about it. It has given me the opportunity to share my story and passion for engineering all over the country through an exhilarating 130 speeches over eight months and many media interviews. I hope I have served to encourage many more school students to consider engineering as a career choice. 

I estimate that through those 130 speeches I spoke to about 30,000 people including 10,000 schoolgirls, and of course, I told girls in particular, the joys and possibilities of a career in engineering.

As for the future, I hope to start a company while finishing off my final four subjects and graduate with two degrees from the University of Melbourne, and be the engineer I always wanted to be.

www.eng.unimelb.edu.au/

As told to Annie Rahilly