When she was tasked to prepare a research poster on sustainability within Western Australian agriculture, first year high school student Kimberley de Mamiel didn’t expect her work to be exhibited internationally, more than 9000 kilometres away from home.
Kimberley’s dad Kevin de Mamiel said he was both surprised and pleased when he received the email from Kelmscott Senior High School (KSHS) recognising his daughter’s work.
KSHS agriculture teacher Jason Pitman said the project involved students selecting a United Nations sustainable development goal (SDG) as well as a topic to research ranging from zero hunger, life on land, affordable clean energy and more.
Mr Pitman said Kimberley’s poster explored gender equality in agriculture.
“The strongest posters were then selected for display at the International Union for Conservation of Nature World Conservation Congress (WCC),” he said.
“Posters demonstrating high quality research, good use of imagery and data and use of persuasive language to summarise their research were selected.
“Kimberley’s poster demonstrated these qualities and passion for the topic.”
Mr Pitman said Kimberley’s poster along with 17 others from KSHS would be displayed at the October education pavilion in Abu Dhabi.
“It will be displayed at the education pavilion to international audiences including world leaders, policy makers, researchers and students from around the world,” he said.
“It is expected the WCC will have over 20,000 delegates attending as it only happens every four years.”
Mr Pitman said Kimberley’s selection was well-deserved, given the quality and effort she put into her A-grade poster.
Kimberley’s dad Kevin de Mamiel said his daughter has always been interested in animals and gardening which helped pique her interest in agriculture.
“We belong to a pet-friendly caravan club so are always around animals,” Mr de Mamiel said.
“We do a lot of caravan trips to country regions so are always in farming areas.
“At home, Kimberley has a garden where she grows plants and vegetables.”
He said the family tried to develop Kimberley’s outside world interests such as farming and mining by staying at farms in regional areas.
Despite Kimberley excelling in agriculture, Mr de Mamiel said she hasn’t yet decided what she dreams of becoming in the future.
“It changes week-by-week,” he said.
“We are saying it’s too early to make a decision – try lots of things while you can.
“No good spending your day at a place you do not like.”
