By Tate Papworth
Dawt Hnem Sung Sarum is breaking new ground.
The 19 year-old from Caroline Springs, who is known as Nunu, is the first recipient of Victoria University and City West Water’s Celebrating Women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) scholarship.
Nunu is one of only a handful of women stuyding engineering at VU.
She was nominated for the scholarship by one of her lecturers, and said she was over the moon.
“I was really surprised when I found out,” she said.
“It means a lot to me. I never thought I’d receive something like this. When I was nominated, I was so happy with that – so when I got a call to say I’d won, it was overwhelming.”
Nunu credits Victoria University’s new first-year learning model with being a big part of her success.
“There’s some subjects I struggle with, but my friends have really helped,” she said.
“They do a different study style here and there’s a lot of benefit to it.”
Nunu arrived in Australia as a refugee from Myanmar (Burma) in 2014 and said her time in Australia had been nothing but positive.
“I’ve been really lucky and haven’t experienced any discrimination … everyone has been really welcoming,” she said.
