By Susana Tomaz
TIC of (E)STEAM

Recently myself and some of my students worked with a team of CX Collective community members to unpack and reimagine student career pathways. The Collective is a global community of customer advocates working towards shifting organisatinal focus from profit to people.

The session was particularly valuable, as the career opportunities available for our students continues to widen with the introduction of new technologies.

During the session the students got to hear first hand about what success across entrepreneurship and STEAM careers can look like from a panel of inspiring speakers. Some of those speakers were Manawa Udy from Ngahere Communities, Perrin Rowland from Westpac and Audrey Cheng from SnapComms.

Students were inspired by their stories, and acme away with reimagined ideas of what their own future career path could be.

Here is a short video summary of the workshop. The full recording of the day will be turned into a training video for teachers so they can replicate this workshop in their own classrooms and extend the impact to many more students.

I am so humbled by the commitment and heart that the whole team put into supporting our young women. This unique workshop was so well thought and planned, it really helped our young women reflect on their values and realise their strengths. Thank you to the whole team and a special thank you to Sarah Clearwater for designing it and making it all happen with the help of the CX Collective. This workshop really touched our hearts.

Feedback from students

• My next step in my career journey is to research and dig deeper into the different career options I have. Now I know that thinking can change really easily, so I will look for careers that I am interested in now, knowing that this could change and not be something I do for the rest of my life.
• The next step from here is to learn about myself and challenge myself to find out what I really want to do, and face my fears.
• Highlight of the workshop … Getting to vision myself in the future and hearing the panelists ensure us that there is more than one path to reach a destination.
• Making the magazine cover and the letter to my 16 yr old self really stood out to me because it helped me deeply discover more about myself.
• The one thing that motivated me the most was that after listing to the panelists, it showed me how I can also achieve what I want to.
• I want to try new things I’ve never done before and overcome many fears so I can be more confident. I’ll try setting up goals I can achieve to keep myself productive and motivated.

Pictured above from left are Sarah Clearwater, Manawa Udy, Hiria Lynne Cameron, Andy Crowe, Susana Tomaz and Jodi Meadows.