The 2024 DIGIT Tour commenced on Sunday evening 12 May when 8 students interested in a career in IT arrived from Inverell and Forbes. The High School students were billeted to families from the Rotary Clubs of North Ryde and Epping for the week. The students started their tour on Monday attending sessions at Cochlear, Oracle, the Department of Home Affairs and Coles Distribution Centre at Eastern Creek. Tuesday was a train day travelling to UTS Library to view the Retrieval System, then onto Cisco and IBM. Wednesday was also a train day where the students were taken to Google the a ferry ride to the city for lunch followed by a visit to Microsoft, The day was concluded with bowling and laser tag courtesy of Strike Bowling Macquarie Centre. Thursday was the final day of touring which included walking around the local area to Macquarie University. Time was set aside in the afternoon to prepare presentations of their week's tour at the Riding for the Disabled, Marsfield Centre. This was followed by dinner and a showcase of their week to members, host families and friends at RDA. The students were taken to the trains for their journey home on Friday morning by Rotarians Brian Bailey and Binoe Verghese. This valuable project would not have been possible without the meticulous planning of David Martin and the wonderful assistance from Peter Mason, Mandy Van, Brian Bailey and Garry Maloney who helped with supervising the students throughout the tour. We would also not have been able to organise the tour without the host families who generously opened their homes to the students for the week. Thank you to Narelle Barker, John and Eszter Fenessy, Bruce Jacob and Louise Prentice, Susie and Stephen Llewelyn, Terrie and Mark McConnell, Brian and Sue Bailey and Peter and Bernie Mason. Our thanks also goes to the wonderful businesses and companies, mentioned above, that welcomed the students and provided interesting sessions for the students and to Riding for the Disabled and Strike Bowling Macquarie Centre for their generous support of the program. |