Ofae thanks Nicta for support

A YOUNG lass from Gulf has proven that women can take up careers that are usually male dominated.
Meet Alisha Ofae, 23, who’s dreams came true, thanks to the National Information and Communication Technology (Nicta) information communication technology (ICT) scholarship for girls.
Ofae was awarded the scholarship in 2018 and maintained it for four years.
She graduated at the top of her class on March 11 at Divine Word University (DWU) in Madang with a bachelor of mathematics and computer science.
She thanked Nicta for supporting more women in the ICT field.
Ofae said funding was a setback for many who wanted to take up computer studies.
She did her ninth grade at Jubilee Catholic Secondary School in Port Moresby and continued her senior high school at Kokopo Secondary School after her father transferred to East New Britain, for work.
In 11th grade, Ofae elected to do ICT, chemistry, English and electrical as her technical vocational education training (Tvet) courses.
“I did not have in mind an ICT career but as I took the course, I was thinking this is the pathway to my dream of becoming a pilot, however, in my ICT classes, my teacher who was passionate about ICT, would talk about the new and changing technologies and how ICT played a role in the changes,” she said.
“It was in this class that this teacher mentioned the Nicta ICT scholarship for girls.
“It was because of my teacher that I came to know and choose a career in ICT and decided that after grade 12 or whenever the scholarship came out, I would apply.”
Ofae said getting a scholarship would take the burden off her parents and allow them to focus on her younger siblings.
“I applied for the scholarship in 2017 when I was doing grade 12 and in 2018, I was awarded the Nicta ICT scholarship.”
Ofae said her first choice of tertiary institution on her school leavers’ form was DWU and her second choice was to do a technical teaching degree majoring in electrical at Don Bosco Technological Institute.
She said the benefits of the scholarship included full tuition fees for four years at DWU, air fares at the end and beginning of the year, accommodation and lodging, K500 per semester as pocket allowance, K1,000 book allowance per semester and a laptop with accessories such as a hard drive among others.
Ofae said as long as the recipient maintained a grade point average of 3 and above, they would keep the scholarship.