I have always and will always love science, but just like many NYSFers, it isn’t my only passion.
Although she did not go on to study STEM after completing the NYSF 2017 Year 12 Program, alumna Jade Lin found the experience incredibly rewarding, and taught her skills, such as evidence-based decision making, that she still applies in her current degree.
"I’m a second year Economics/Arts (Anthropology) student at the ANU, a Tuckwell scholar and I’m currently the inaugural President of Wright Hall, a new residential hall on campus. The main hobby I still do is debating — in 2018, I was a grand finalist at the Australian Intervarsity Debating Championships; I also play a little bit of AFL. I have always and will always love science, but just like many NYSFers, it isn’t my only passion. I’m ultimately really interested in human welfare and poverty reduction through sustainable, culturally sensitive policy that is fundamentally about self-determination.
Jade Lin with her NYSF Mirzakhani focus group
So far, I’ve worked as an intern at the Commonwealth Department of the Treasury looking at youth labour market outcomes (unemployment, schooling and so on) since the Global Financial Crisis. That was a super interesting experience and gave me insight into life in the public service. I currently work as a subeditor for the East Asia Forum, an excellent policy paper discussing the Asia Pacific and its economic and political climate. This job brings me interesting new perspectives on all sorts of things every day.
I’m particularly proud of being Wright Hall’s President, and of the community my leadership team has built at this college and its advocacy towards improving pastoral care and questioning the university’s cost-cutting measures that have affected all the residences on campus. In order to push for better student support, Wright Hall ran an Open Day strike, in which we refused to run tours of the campus however still spoke to prospective students about how wonderful Wright Hall is. The ANU has subsequently promised to add a full-time staff member to improve pastoral care, and we’re continuing to push for better.
2018 Australian Intervarsity Debating Championship Final
NYSF was a really fun time — it was my introduction to a beautiful campus that I would call home a year later, showed me some interesting possible career paths and taught me how to do everything on very little sleep. It was also a really empowering experience — meeting people from different backgrounds with aspirations as big as space or as local as soil gave me a lot of hope for our nation’s future.
The NYSF most importantly teaches you that young people’s voices matter, and that where there’s a will, there’s a way. I run into NYSFers all the time at leadership trainings, at coffee shops and everywhere in between, and they’re all doing some incredible stuff. Going to the NYSF is a commitment to make Australia better, no matter how you choose to do it, and understanding how important evidence-based decision making is."