Felicity Powell
SEA19
Auckland, New Zealand
Challenge
It's estimated that 1/4 of NZ high school students do not have reliable internet access at home, and at MRGS, 20% of our students cannot afford their own device. Many of these students arrive at high school without basic computer literacy skills, which means they lack confidence using technology in their learning environments and choose to avoid it where possible. As a result, only about 10% of these students - 2% of the school population - choose to study Computer Science after Year 10. Because of the nature of New Zealand's educational inequality, many of these students come from cultural backgrounds that are vastly under-represented in our STEM industries, and the cycle of poverty - paired with inequity at our school - compounds this issue and divides students based on what they have, not what they love. I want to develop culturally inclusive resources to combat this under-representation.