Year 10 student, Nora Paicu, had an amazing run of successes over the Term 2 holiday period.

Nora was selected to be a part of the Otago Museum’s upcoming digital portrait exhibition called ‘100 women, 100 words… infinite possibilities’. This exhibit will feature 100 women of all ages who embrace STEM as part of their lives. Nora was among the students nominated to be a part of this exhibition by the Columba College Science Department for her continued enthusiasm and commitment to science classes, GATE Science, Science Fair and the Science Badge programme. Nora’s science portfolio suitably impressed the Otago Museum judges who selected her as 1 of 100 women who will appear in the exhibit which is currently being developed and will be open to the public later in the year.

Nora also won an award for the Capture Science Photography Competition, run by the Otago of University Optics Chapter, a postgraduate group from the Physics Department. The theme of this year’s competition was ‘motion and time’, and submissions were judged on the clarity of the science, aesthetic appeal and originality. Submissions also had to be supported by a short caption explaining the science being presented. Nora’s photo of ripples radiating away from a submerged crab burrow won ‘coolest photo’ in the 13-18 age group.

All submissions can be seen here on the Otago Optics website.

As if that was not enough, Nora was also awarded a $250 Scholarship from the Ministry of Primary Industries to attend the GirlBoss Edge: Primary Industries program in the STEM field. This program was a 10 day ‘leadership accelerator’ for girls aged 15 to 18 and ran from the 11th - 20th July 2020.

Congratulations Nora! Tino pai!!

Mr Sparrow and the Science Department