Hannah's Story

When Hannah Watson sat for her second year (Honours) degree program examinations at the University of Southern Queensland, she was nine months pregnant. She delivered her baby girl the next day.  Such is Hannah’s determination to succeed in her chosen career.

 

Late last year, Hannah made a decision that she says was life changing. That decision was to apply for an ISAQ Bicentennial Education Foundation Scholarship (ISAQ BEF) to support her Honours Research Project.

 

Hannah had a big project in mind, but it was conditional on finding enough funding to get her to Kiribati, a member of the United Nations group of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) with her research supervisor at UniSQ, Chris McAlister, and Aaron Hick, an expert on Kiribati. She needed $10,000 for a fact finding tour.  In 2024, due to the lack of childcare, Hannah had given up her full-time job with a local surveying company to look after her children and study remotely but with personal finances stretched to the limit, the project was out of the question unless she could find funding.

 

ISAQ Bicentennial Education Foundation directors were impressed by Hannah’s initial vision for her project to research the components of a dynamic datum for Kiribati. Datums for the Small Island Developing States such as Kiribati were developed in the 1960s and 1970s, so a more suitable dynamic datum is critical to better manage land, marine and natural resources.

 

Phil Pozzi, Chair of the Foundation, said “Hannah’s funding not only enabled a worthy student to progress their Honours degree, but would provide a valuable step in assisting other SIDS progress toward managing and maintaining a dynamic datum and the benefits it would bring for adaptation to climate change, agriculture, local industries and managing their territorial waters”.

 

With funding of $10,000 in hand from the ISAQ BEF and their warm encouragement, Hannah’s team set out in January on a hectic study tour, meeting the Kiribati’s welcoming government officials, the island surveyors, and the warm-hearted people of the island. Exhausted but delighted with the experience and equipped with the information collected, she returned to write up her project. 

 

Hannah has now successfully presented the first draft of her Honours Project at UniSQ, adapted to create a logic model to assess SIDS’ capacity and existing infrastructure to manage and maintain a geodetic datum in the future. Directors of ISAQ BEF wish her well for her final thesis.