Boeing engineer encourages Indigenous people to enter STEM careers

When Boeing systems engineer Taylah Griffin isn’t working to keep the Royal Australian Air Force’s early warning aircraft flying, she’s working to inspire more Indigenous people to consider a career in science or engineering. The future job market will be led by STEM and currently, less than 1% of Indigenous students are studying STEM at university, she says. If we don’t put a spotlight on Indigenous excellence and promote STEM to young Indigenous Australians, then the gap will continue to grow. Following her passion for science and maths has certainly worked for Griffin, who graduated last year with a Bachelor of Electrical and Aerospace Engineering (Honours) at Brisbane-based university QUT – the first Indigenous person to do so. And this year, she won the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Tertiary Student STEM Achievement Award, organised by the BHP Foundation and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.