We were very happy to welcome Kiara, a Grade 11 learner from Edgemead High School during the last school holidays. She spent two days at IDIA getting to see what work we do from taking part in a curriculum design workshop to the IDIA data processing pipeline. We also got the opportunity to visit the South African National Bioinformatics Institute, one of our partners in ilifu, the next generation cloud computing infrastructure. Kiara got to see how modern science is carried out (mostly on computers!) and what is in common between fields as diverse as astronomy and genetics, and how scientific skills can apply beyond the field of science.
We also asked Kiara about her perspective on university studies and research. Here are her words.
Change from a high school student to university student is a hard and stressful change. For about 12 years of our life we only saw and experienced one way of learning in school. We were in classes with minimum kids in order for the teacher to make personal connections and help us individually. We had teachers run after us for tasks and making sure we get the marks. Weve been told that university is nothing like high school, that it is a big leap and just being told that statement has scared most kids who then decided not to attend university. We have been told that we are on our own in terms of classes and task due date, they don’t coddle you or care about your excuses. Many are afraid that we will not be able to handle the life style change, but we will never know unless we try. There are misconceptions about university, that professors don’t want to see you succeed and it’s just a non stop party.
Our fears come with excitement as well, many students are looking forward to the freedom, not being stuck in school for 7 hours a day, five days a week. We look forward to being with all our friends most of the week, many not realising that this is not the time for non stop parties. There are many speakers that come to high schools to motivate kids to succeed in life, there was one memorable speech the speaker gave, ‘’the desire to succeed must come from inside of you”. That saying stuck with as i worked my way through high school and will stick with me through university.
The change is scary as well as exciting but i welcome the journey, there is no better experiences to help you develop. What we have come to realise is that every student is different, some work harder and some have different stress tolerance levels.
As scientists working at universities, we have many things to learn (and to remember!) about being in High School. Thank you Kiara for sharing your perspective with us and maybe we can welcome you back as a student or as a researcher?