Faces of WISEST: Nadia Gifford

I was a WISEST SRP participant in 2019, and I worked in the Faculty of Engineering on a machine learning text recognition project, where I was first introduced to calculus.

Before this experience, I was confident my future would be in the humanities, driven by my passion for writing and theatre. However, my time at WISEST, and the program’s empowering message, opened up an alternative path. I had always enjoyed mathematics, but WISEST made me passionate enough to seriously pursue it.

In my senior year of high school, despite COVID-19 lockdowns, I was awarded a full-ride scholarship thanks to my dedication to promoting women in STEM. I went on to earn a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics at the University of Northern British Columbia. The message of gender representation in STEM continued to motivate me throughout university and shaped how I approached my studies.

Today, I work as an Assistant Language Teacher with the JET Programme in Kobe, Japan, at a Super Science High School. I draw directly from my WISEST experience to support my students: we create research posters just like I did during the Summer Research Program. That hands-on experience has proven invaluable, it helps me connect with students more meaningfully and approach my work with greater insight. My path is still unfolding, but every experience promotes another.

WISEST not only gave me direction, it gave me purpose. I hope to ignite even a spark of the passion it gave me in the students I now teach.