Kate Duggen's story

I was lucky enough to be selected (from Year 13 at St Cuthbert's College) as part of the inaugural 2005 NZIBO team, travelling to Beijing, China; in the first year of NZ's participation in the competition. This was an incredible experience, from selection and training through to preparing, travelling, and competing. It's been one I've remembered vividly ever since and drawn on extensively: in both an academic and scientific capacity, and a social, personal-development sense.

I've fond memories of the week-long selection camp, held variously in Hamilton (Waikato University) and at King's College and various Auckland tertiary institutions - guided dissections, botany, MCQ tests late at night, a marae stay, tenpin bowling, PCR, practicals, pizza, great teachers, diagram-drawing, billeting a fellow competitor and so on. The final dinner was lovely, the teachers were incredibly encouraging, and the whole experience really cohesive and collegial. I met some great people and garnered some practical skills which proved invaluable in lab work at university (even now, in fourth year medicine, I'm stumbling across concepts and procedures I was introduced to that week!) There was comprehensive academic coverage, and rigorous testing; but also plenty of breaks and social events, and an atmosphere that was experiential and inclusive as opposed to competitive.

Having been selected into the team, I was well supported for self-directed preparation, with correspondence style CDs and textbooks and clear guidance and support. We were helped no end with fundraising and logistics, and Max and Angela were on hand for pastoral support and guidance!

China itself was simply incredible. In Hong Kong, we visited night markets and gawped at street vendors. Beijing was sublime: hot and hazy, with red suns and constant activity; a city immersed in its preparations for the impending Olympics.

The competition was incredibly well-run: good hotel accommodation, air-conditioned tour buses, cohorts from more countries than I knew existed, and a mind-blowing opening ceremony replete with dancing and song. We visited the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, Wangfujing, a lakes district outside the city, and numerous other attractions. Fondest memories include a Peking duck banquet, a gigantic water fight at Chinese gardens, a phenomenal reception at a local high school, endless cultural performances, a daily competition newspaper on your breakfast plate each morning, a never-ending succession of amazing Chinese meals, and a timetable packed with circuses, shows and surprises. The competition itself was impeccably-run and an incredibly valuable experience, complete with colour-coded lab coats for each competitor cohort, personalised t-shirts and calculators and stationery, and rigorous security. I recall arthropod dissections, punnet squares, diagramming, plotting, multi-choicing, calculating...