Nathan Nguyen

Nathan Nguyen is a high school student in Brisbane, Australia. His biggest goal is to promote equality in STEM education, believing that where one grows up should not dictate what kind of education one receives. To help achieve this, Nathan established the registered non-profit Sciencious, aiming to provide STEM resources to underprivileged and under-resourced students around the world.

Sciencious provides a publishing platform for high school students worldwide where they can upload scientific articles to its website before they are reviewed by its experienced editing team. The website has over 27,000 users. The best articles are then compiled into a free, digital magazine which is then distributed to its subscribers and members. The latest issue is on the topic of Women in STEM, aiming to eradicate the stigma associated with women in STEM occupations and increase female representation.

Sciencious also provides free, weekly online tutoring for financially disadvantaged students across the world, helping them with their homework or explaining concepts. Students are also provided with interactive resources in the form of videos and online experiment simulations.

Through Sciencious, Nathan also organizes online STEM writing competitions accessible by students worldwide, raising AUD$1000 to date with participants from over 30 countries. There is also a free podcast, Sciencious Soundwaves, which interviews scientists in universities such as Harvard, Yale and MIT and gives students a platform to share their research and academic journey.

It has collaborated with various international organizations such as Project 21, an NGO in India, to organize online webinars about STEM-related topics and has also partnered with Juno to help students negotiate the lowest private student loan rates.

As a member of the LGBTQ+ community in a traditional community in Vietnam, Nathan had to contend with bullying, discrimination and mental health issues for many years, eventually moving to Australia to pursue his education where he excelled in mathematics and science, winning various awards such as the University of Queensland Young Scientist of the Year. An extremely active volunteer, Nathan has raised thousands of dollars for numerous causes during his time at school and was the first ever international student to become school's Vice Captain since it was founded 70 years ago.

Through his involvement in the STEM field, Nathan wants to not only uplift disadvantaged students but also inspire them to strive for greatness.

If her were to win the Global Student Prize, he would continue to support Sciencious by establishing a Sciencious charity in Vietnam to provide direct funding for underprivileged and under-resourced students, provide scholarships and transportation for children in his childhood village to go to school, organise a research competition, and recruit full time workers for outreach and to connect with more rural schools in developing countries.