Support from the Withers-Needham Scholarship helped set Catrin Yako on the road to success in a traditionally male-dominated field.
On several occasions during her first year of study, Bachelor of Engineering student Catrin Yako recalls coming close to dropping out of uni altogether, because of the huge pressures she was under.
“I was not really in a good state,” Ms Yako recalls. “I was struggling financially, mentally, everything. Covid hit and we went into lockdown in week three of my course. I couldn’t work, I couldn’t even make friends. So, I would sit by myself in my room wondering if I’m doing the right thing or not. I just wanted to drop out.”
Ms Yako was still quite new to Australia at this stage, her family having arrived as refugees from the war in Iraq in 2017.
“We started from zero, knowing no one,” she says. “It’s just different worlds. Totally have to shift your mindset, language, people, everything. It was even hard to make friends.”
It’s not hard to imagine how these additional pressures would have impacted on Ms Yako’s state of mind, which makes it all the more remarkable that she had the courage to stay the course.
“I kept going for some reason,” she says. “I don't know why. I just kept pushing through. And then in my second year, I applied for the scholarship.”
Founded by Susan Needham and her father Sydney Withers in 2023, the Withers-Needham Scholarship was established to encourage and inspire women to pursue STEM careers, by providing $5,000 in support to one second-year, one third-year, and one final-year female student in RMIT’s Bachelor of Engineering program.
Ms Needham had a varied drawing office career. Mr Withers is an RMIT alumnus who started studying engineering but switched to science. He eventually had a long career in the Royal Australian Navy, specialising in electrical engineering. His naval career was recognised by the Institute of Engineers Australia.
Ms Needham was educated at a time when women were not encouraged to take on a career, so she never pursued education until later in life.
Aware of the opportunities denied her when she was young, Ms Needham and her father founded their scholarship in the hope they could help to address this imbalance today.
Ms Yako would certainly agree they are achieving exactly what they wanted to. She still remembers the moment the email arrived confirming she had been awarded her scholarship.
“It was probably one of the best moments in my whole uni life,” Ms Yako says. “I remember I showed it to my mum. I was like, ‘Mom, they accepted me!’ It just felt like I deserved it.”
Inspired by this validation, Ms Yako redoubled her efforts and studied even harder. She says the scholarship made a huge contribution to her ability to study.
I can’t even describe how useful it was for me. I couldn’t work during Covid, so I couldn't afford what I needed. It's not just about the money, it's feeling like you have someone there for you, who cares and is encouraging you to continue this journey because they have faith that you're going to be something good in the future.
Today, Ms Yako is a Graduate Engineer working on highway design projects with engineering and sustainability company Arup.
“Engineering is traditionally a very male dominated industry,” she says. “But my cohort at Arup is almost 50-50. So I think society is trying to shift and be more inclusive.”
Ms Yako’s experience shows just how much our world is changing thanks to awards like the Withers-Needham Scholarship.
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