Karla Heric

Karla learned early on that science was her pathway, but she wasn't sure where it would take her until she found her dream internship at CSIRO.

Why did you study Science?

Growing up, we are always asked: “what do you want to be when you are older?” But for me, I never quite knew. I wanted to be able to help people, but despite being quite involved with the arts, sports and various extracurriculars, I always struggled to find one passion. Deciding on what I would be doing every single day for the rest of my life felt like a really big decision to be making before VCE.

So with my dreams of helping people, I was quite disappointed when I learned that a Bachelor of ‘helping people’ was not a degree offered at the University of Melbourne, and I had to find an alternative. After attending a science information day in year 10, a dream was born: to study medicine at the University of Melbourne. Three years later I stepped foot onto campus, this time as a student, filled with excitement that I was now one step closer to that dream.

That dream was going well, until I had to study anatomy and physiology in my second year. I found I didn’t connect with the content, which made completing assignments a chore and my class attendance rapidly declined. Eventually, I concluded that medicine was not for me. But this meant I faced the greater crisis deciding what my major would be. I loved chemistry, biology, and mathematics but didn’t love any of them enough individually to specialise.

My dream internship:

It was when I completed a dream internship at CSIRO that I realised that my heart was in genetics. I found genetics to be the perfect culmination of the chemistry, biology and mathematics subjects I enjoyed and gave me the chance to contribute to global improvement. I am now starting my Master of Science (BioSciences) researching the bacteria associated with algal endosymbionts of corals to further understand their contribution to climate change resistance. This is something I never would have anticipated when I first began at university. Years later, it turns out that I am helping people (and especially corals), in a way that I could never have ever imagined. That is the beauty of science. We don’t have all the answers, and we don’t know what the future looks like, but I am passionate about ensuring it is bright for all.

The Science Experience

The Science Experience is a three-day school holiday camp for high school students to come to campus and explore different science activities. Spending time with these students has allowed me to learn about what the future generations are excited about, and how I can be a part of the inspiring the next generation of science students. We held activities where students could diffuse a bomb they couldn’t see with VR, hear what the sun sounds like or tour the anatomy museum to see parts of the human body.

Why get involved in programs like the Science Experience?

As I grew up and began to study science in high school, I came to realise just how little people know about what a career in science looks like from day to day. I’ve realised how incredibly lucky I was to have a real-life scientist in my immediate circle growing up, as my auntie is a research scientist. Seeing her lab, hearing about her work and seeing what she could accomplish through her research is why I vowed to be that cool scientist auntie for the young scientists of the future. Since beginning my own Bachelor of Science at the University of Melbourne, I’ve been involved with programs such as the Science Experience and Science Delivery that both gave me the opportunity to share my passion and shed light on what exactly being a scientist is all about.

What has been one of your favourite moments?

One of my favourite moments was when one of my students, who also watched ‘Mars’ (my favourite show), and I had an intense conversation about whether or not we believed we could terraform Mars. Terraforming is a process of making an environment the same as Earth’s so humans could live there without suits. This student said, “I read a paper” about abundance of elements and that we couldn’t terraform a planet like Mars. While I always start science debates with “I read a paper…”, it was entertaining being on the other side this time. Having a student in high school already understand the importance of reading papers, scientific journals and learning from others was exciting as I know that future generations will be up for collaborating and sharing their work. While this student, like me, didn’t want to study astronomy, they still liked to research it just out of interest. It was so good to see the curiosity in young girls and it reminds me that the future of science is in good hands.

Another great conversation I had was on the topic of how cool octopuses are. I ‘ve read a lot of papers about them and think they are the coolest ever. But the best part about this conversation was that I had a student correct me and say “octopi” but we both did a little research and found that it is now widely accepted to use either - so we all learned a little about octopuses/octopi that day.

The idea of working across different fields of science came up and I spoke to a student about how I speak four languages. He said he could code in many more than that - so now I have to rise up to the challenge and learn more languages but haven’t decided if they will be spoken or in code!

What did you learn from this program?

These interactions with students and the experience of spending a week alongside them allowed me to explore the leadership and communication skills. I had to help them navigate the campus and foster their interests in different science activities.

Find out more:

Karla has since begun a research project in the Master of Science (BioSciences).