A decade into being a Curious Minds STEM Coach, Joanne Henry shares with us her experiences as a mentor and award-winning technologist. “After 10+ years I can honestly say that I have loved every minute”.

Joanne comes from a family of engineers and STEM supporters. “My parents were always so supportive of my following a science type of path that it didn’t really feel like I made a conscious choice to do it.” She feels incredibly fortunate to have had this “unwavering backing” from her parents, as many people face challenges with their families seeing the opportunities STEM can offer.

Perhaps it’s coming from this supportive environment that makes Joanne such an excellent coach for young girls curious about STEM. Joanne cares deeply about her students’ interests, potential career aspirations, and passions – her mentorship style supports her students’ whole selves, not just their academic interests. She looks at combining their intellectual strengths with treasured hobbies, career flexibility, and future skill requirements.

Joanne at an autonomous drilling demo at WesTrac Tomago with our customer.

Her current student, Grace, is interested in the environment and sustainability, as well as debating. Joanne has identified that a combination of these things could lead Grace towards a mix of law and policy work, which Grace is taking in her stride, deciding that she wants to fully understand the sustainability of some popular renewable energy resources, including the environmental cost that comes with developing them.

For her STEM project, Grace is investigating “the technologies, policy and governance that has been successfully deployed in some of the world’s most sustainable cities.” With Joanne as her STEM Coach, it’s clear that Grace’s systems exploration of sustainability is in incredibly good hands.

Joanne’s own science path led her to Durham University where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Geophysics with specialisations in Geology in 2008. This degree opened up some seriously cool career paths for Joanne, who currently leads the technical specialist team at WesTrac. Joanne’s team supports and delivers technology products for mining and construction industries on CAT equipment. Her days often involve deploying complex automation projects, fatigue management systems, and high precision GPS systems.

Joanne loves this kind of problem solving. She says being in STEM means you “get to continuously learn” and with no two days the same, she is constantly engaged with her work.

In Joanne’s current role she is “motivated by solving problems” and “getting to constantly learn more about new and evolving technologies”. Indeed, she finds it “fascinating how technology evolves and advances” – a true curious mind at heart!

Joanne with a big new D11 dozer in the workshop!

One of the other best parts of her current role is being “surrounded by a group of very technical people, who understand such detail about how systems work and interact”. Learning from the people around her is a definite perk to the job and coincides with one of Joanne’s top tips about working in STEM or with a technical team: communication.

Joanne says always “communicate early” as “raising issues early with the right team of people can really help in progressing problem solving, and coming up with alternative solutions.” Communication is one of the key skills involved in the Curious Minds program as well, and Joanne can attest that transparent, clear, and early “communication has been key to problem solving a lot of the challenges I’ve seen in my career”.

Joanne receiving the NSW Women in Mining Technological Innovation award in 2023.

As a Curious Minds STEM Coach, Joanne has also witnessed the transformative impact that mentoring can have on both the student and the mentor. A highlight for Joanne is learning “every year” with her students “about whatever they are interested in”.

She truly believes that “this program is fantastic for both students and mentors.”

Previously, Joanne’s students have “worked on a whole range of projects”, allowing Joanne to learn with them as they explore subjects that challenge and build on their current expertise. Together Joanne and her students have completed projects in psychology, forensic, health, engineering, and biological fields, including on topics like renewable energy, endometriosis, agricultural variation, the evolution of flight, black holes, software development, and more.

For Joanne, learning “how diverse STEM is at an industry level” is one incredible perk of the role as a Curious Minds STEM Coach. Another perk is seeing “the students making such tight bonds with other girls who share similar interests”.

Joanne believes it’s a true “privilege to see so many young girls explore STEM and learn about themselves as well as their chosen subject. It’s a fantastic opportunity for anyone who loves STEM and helping others explore their technical curiosity.”

“I feel like Curious Minds has made a real difference”.

Thank you Joanne for being a special part of so many young girls’ journeys with STEM. Here’s to another decade of mentorship, learning, and growing together!

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Thank you to Isabel and Ella from Sci_Burst for the collaboration that helped deliver this insightful article.