My experience at Karls Winter Academy 2022

At a winter school that I participated in this month, I met people from different parts of the world, each with a challenge that they wanted to tackle, and a cause worth fighting for. All of us had something in common: we wanted to embrace diversity and tackle the challenges that surrounded it.

We were interested in contributing to a more equitable world and wanted to tackle challenges surrounding race, gender, social status, wealth and beyond. During our three weeks together at the winter school, we learnt how inequality was caused and its impact on communities across the world. Then, we brought our own communities into context as we worked on a project that would contribute to the efforts made to solve the problem.

In addition to learning about inequality, we also received training on Project Management - which supercharged our ideas into actionable projects.

My project was about including more women to STEM discussions. I came up with a project to organise a series of hands-on workshops that touch upon various STEM fields. You can view my pitch deck here. I'm grateful for all the feedback I received throughout the winter school and on Pitch Day. It was empowering to be in an environment where team members wanted both you and your project to succeed.

I intend to finesse some of my ideas based on the feedback I received and then do a few pitches at my university. If you are based in Canberra, interested and would like to see this happen, please reach out. My email is anneysha.sarkar070@gmail.com. I'd be so excited to have a chat over coffee/ hot chocolate. :)

I loved how at the winter camp we embraced diversity. In one of the workshops, we filled out what identities we belonged to based on race, ethnicity, gender, age, educational background, country and city of origin and many more. Then, we filled out what the majority of people around us identified with. We also colour-coded our flowers depending upon whether we felt privileged to have our identity. Here is my flower. Although it does not reveal much about what is happening in it, I thought the flower itself was pretty cool and wanted to share it here.

My reflection would be that this was a revealing activity. I realised there were parts of me that I wasn't very proud of, and at the same time I realised how privileged I am because of my identity. It was also very interesting to look at others' flowers and listen to their take on the privileges and non-privileges they have as part of their identities.

In addition, we participated in discussions on different privileges. These discussions did a great job of informing participants about how each privilege creates differences using real examples.

Furthermore, we had so much fun at the winter school! While I couldn't join the game nights (it was too early in the morning for me), I had lots of fun at the opening and closing ceremonies.

I have lots to take away from these three weeks. Firstly, I am now better informed about diversity and inequalities. Secondly, I am now part of a very motivated and supportive community. Thirdly, I have a very exciting project to work on. Last but not least is a thought that I would like to share: We are not different from each other, we are different, like each other.

P.S. A short video of me about what I was excited about at the start of the winter school.