The awards celebrate the outstanding achievements and contributions of mentors, students, teachers and schools who participated in the In2science peer mentoring program in 2021.
Having been part of the program at Galen during 2021 Ashlee willingly gave up her lunchtime once a week for 10 weeks to connect to a university mentor.
Because Ashlee wished to learn more about neuroscience, in semester one she was matched with a third-year neuroscience student.
She loved the program so much, she asked if she could continue with the program.
Her next mentor was PhD Neuroscience student Georgia Eleftheriou who works in research at the Florey Institute.
Galen Catholic College teacher and program coordinator Maree Timms said Ashlee’s connection to both mentors was amazing, but with it was an extra special connection with Georgia.
“They clicked from the get-go, and now hope to continue their mentoring relationship in 2023 when the program begins again,” Ms Timms said.
Ms Timms said the school was very proud of Ashlee’s achievement.
“Due to the way she has interacted with both her mentors, Ashlee has been awarded the Mentee of the Year,” she said.
“Ashlee was also part of the In2science KBR Engineering/ STEM Professional program where she got to chat to industry professionals about careers in STEM.”
Ashlee travelled to Melbourne with her family on December 14 to accept the award where she was fortunate enough to meet her mentor Georgia in person.
The award was presented by the Hon Jon Brumby (ex-Premier of Victoria) and Chair of In2science.
“Ashlee was over the moon and very excited, as was her family,” Ms Timms said.
“When Ashlee met Georgia face to face for the first time, they were like long lost friends catching up with each other, they didn’t stop chatting the whole night.”
Ms Timms said around 3,500 students across Victoria participated in the mentorship program.
“For Ashlee to get nominated and win the award is pretty exciting. She follows in the footsteps of other Galen students Imogen Quilty, Maddy Baumanis (finalists in 2017), Annabel Martinac, winner 2019.
“We are all so proud of Ashlee.”
