00:00 My name is Eleanor Bridart and I'm from Mount Barker in Western Australia.
00:11 I am graduating tomorrow with an honours in paleontology.
00:28 Four thousand clicks, yep.
00:31 Two months before I was frantically packing it up with things that you'd need like spotlights,
00:38 CB radio, big battery bank and the battery bank and inverter runs all Eleanor's equipment.
00:44 To pack up Eleanor is the most monumental job and then Kirsten has to climb on the roof
00:50 and put everything back on the top of the van and strap it all down safely.
00:55 Eleanor's achievements are very much her own, you know like it's great having seen what
01:00 she can achieve, like it's much physically harder, it's time consuming and yet she's
01:07 so diligent.
01:08 Eleanor and I graduated our undergrad together a few years ago now and it's been great to
01:13 see her actually doing it by herself.
01:15 I just think it's been really good to see her showing the world that amazing things
01:20 are possible.
01:21 I started working with paleontology when I was about nine years old.
01:30 The CDC started making working with dinosaurs and working with beasts so that's where it
01:38 all kind of comes together.
01:41 There's no information that you're going to find with the editor that says paleontologists
01:49 can do their work and study whilst they're in a wheelchair.
01:55 So I love paleontology but it is not actually something that I ever expected I would be
02:04 doing.
02:05 So I graduated, I am more of a, what you could say a lab rat than a field mouse.
02:15 All of this wealth of knowledge on socials becomes digital knowledge that is then accessible
02:25 to people doing lab work.
02:27 Eleanor has had probably a more difficult journey into geoscience than most because
02:34 earth science is traditionally a more able-bodied discipline and that bias has sort of kept
02:41 people out of earth science for a long time.
02:44 Eleanor has transitioned from being an undergraduate student to doing, she's now doing post-grad
02:50 study and in between is the honours year and honours is an opportunity for a student, it's
02:57 about a one year project for a student to really get a sense of what doing real research
03:03 is like and so they have to work with a supervisor to answer some scientific questions, conduct
03:10 research and write a thesis.
03:12 While studying for honours I attended three international conferences last year, both
03:18 of which were held in my home state of WA.
03:22 I will finish now by saying if you believe that digital and inclusive approach to learning
03:30 didn't exist then I would not sit before you today as a paleontology graduate and I am
03:38 sure that is true of all my fellow graduates.
03:43 Thank you.
03:44 Thank you Eleanor, I admire your courage and your determination to get where you've got
03:45 and I'm sure we all agree.
03:45 Thank you.
03:59 Thank you.
04:06 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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