Meet Paige Iwatani - Defence Women in STEM Scholar
Paige is a second-year mechanical engineering student at UTS and has recently received the Defence Women in STEM Undergraduate Scholarship. Paige is based in Port Macquarie at the moment while she completes an internship as a product development engineer.
Paige's journey with the WiEIT community
As her high school encouraged STEM opportunities for women, WiEIT was a natural extension. While she was in year 12, Paige took a tour of UTS with our very own Program Coordinator, Lucia Bautista. That year, Paige got offered a FEIT Women in Engineering and IT scholarship, so her journey with the WiEIT community started there. Paige is now part of the Lucy Mentoring Program, where she regularly catches up with her Lucy mentor from Thales Australia to discuss career prospects, learn more about different roles and opportunities, and get some insights into what a day in the industry looks like.
I’ve definitely gotten some amazing opportunities through the Lucy Mentoring Program.
Paige Iwatani
Her growing interest in the defence sector
Completing the Women in Aviation work experience in year 11 gave her some background into the industry and draw her attention to the defence sector. This year, Paige was awarded the Defence Women in STEM undergraduate scholarship, after sharing her career aspirations and interest in engineering in the application. The scholarship involves financial support, mentorship, and opportunities to undertake STEM placements with Defence.
Keep an eye out and apply for anything, even if you don't think you're going to get it, still apply for it. Apply for everything.
Paige Iwatani
Professional experience as something vital in your career
Although finding work experience during first year of university can be challenging, Paige knew UTS had industry partners willing to train students with the technical experience they require. Following a search, she was accepted as an intern at Bale Defence. After seven weeks of a six-month position, Paige highlighted how much she has learned so far while working in the field, “I’ve done CAD models... looking at production issues, tracking those. I’ve done so many different things, I probably couldn’t list them all”. She also mentioned the importance of inclusive workplaces to improve the participation and retention of women in the engineering field in general.
Key reflection
Paige showed us how enriching can be to apply to opportunities early in your career. By being an active member of our community, she was able to find these opportunities through networking events, WiEIT’s newsletter, and careers boards.
We hope you enjoyed reading about Paige’s story as much as we enjoyed talking to her!
Interview: Amber Rizvi and Victoria Migueles, Program Officer.
