Koorie Student Showcase

By Ashley Van Krieken

Early March saw the culmination of the 2021 Koorie Student Program with a showcase of the final student products and concepts. Started in Term 2 of 2021 the program was impacted by successive lockdowns over the year and it was so exciting that the Showcase day finally arrived.

The program, developed in conjunction with the six schools of the Lilydale District and Yarra Valley Education Plan, was focused on providing indigenous students with a collaborative team based program focused on technology and Human Centred Design Thinking. Forty four students ranging from Year 7 to VCE started in the project with 35 attending the showcase. Seven projects were displayed to the audience comprising senior school leaders, the Box Hill Institute Interim CEO, Executive Leaders and Board members, Yarra Ranges Council staff, parents and BHI staff and students. The final concepts created by the students blended indigenous culture and story-telling with digital design and fabrication producing the fantastic pieces shown below.

Over the course of the program students not only worked with one another and the Yarra Ranges Tech School team but numerous mentors from Box Hill Institute, industry and local government partners. A big thanks in particular to Headland Machinery, Metfab, Objective 3D and Mid Life Cycles for providing materials and/or fabrication services to bring the concepts to life. As one of the many measures of the program’s success, 15 of the original program cohort joined 23 new students, who kicked off their journey at the showcase, to continue working on their projects. We look forward to the continuation of this project in 2022 and beyond and can’t wait to see the next iteration of concepts and ideas that will emerge from the 2022 student cohort.