One of the Gadget Girls, Nicola Baker, has been awarded the inaugural Yes! Youth Encouragement Scholarship by the Rotary Club of Sydney for her passion of photography and drones.
Rotary created the Awards to celebrate 100 years of Rotary in Australia in 2021. Yes! Scholarships focus on youth support and growth for young people between the ages of 12 – 17 years across four categories: sports, education, the Arts and environment. There were eight scholarships awarded valued at $3000 per participant, equally balanced between metropolitan and regional New South Wales.
Nicola Baker, was motivated to apply for the scholarship as she wants to gain her drone licence so she can move towards working in the drone sector whilst she is finishing school. Nicola’s dream is to get her Remote Pilot’s Licence (RePL) and improve her flying skills.
“This scholarship is going to make such a huge difference in my life by helping me open doors to different pathways and careers that without the scholarship I probably wouldn’t have,” says Nicola.
One Giant Leap’s Jackie Carpenter, the founder of The Gadget Girlz, believe the remote operation of drones was highlighted just recently with the Ingenuity Helicopter on Mars. She hopes that one day Nicola could be flying a drone on the Moon or Mars herself. “Nicola is a positive role model, and she thoroughly deserves this scholarship’, said Jackie.
Mark Dyer, Chair of Youth activities at Rotary said “the Rotary Club of Sydney is thrilled to be able to support Nicola to follow her passion for science and space exploration with an inaugural Rotary PCYC Youth Encouragement Scholarship.” More information about Yes! Scholarships can be found at sydneyrotary.com.
