Roxi Kenny from The Bachelor has some seriously impressive woman in STEM credentials.
It’s no secret that we crushed on bachelor Matt Agnew’s epic astrophysics-turned-data-science career a couple of seasons ago, but it’s the female contestants with similarly impressive STEM gigs that we’ve always been most stoked on.
Last year Finance boss and commerce grad Danush went home without a rose in one of the first few episodes, while engineers Sogand (civil) and Chelsie (chemical) battled it out over Matt’s heart – and brain – for the rest of the season.
But this year our unofficial woman in STEM representative is 29-year-old Roxi (Roxanne) Kenny, who’s not only a working mechanical engineer, but is also studying Law at CQ University in QLD.
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Experience
According to unenvironment.org, Kenny was first exposed to engineering while working at her parents’ refrigeration and air conditioning business, AirRite. She took over as a casual receptionist once a week, which later turned into a full-time role after her mum encouraged her to up-skill at uni.
“When I began working at Air-Rite, Mum suggested I study mechanical engineering to assist with my progress within the business and hopefully it will allow me to hold the Unlimited Design Licence in the future when she wants to retire,” she told the publication 2019.
“It assisted me in learning more about the project side of the business as I wanted to be more involved with tendering on the mechanical packages for builders and running projects we have won.”
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Biggest challenges
Although Roxi has always felt supported by family and colleagues, being a woman in STEM hasn’t come without its challenges. The refrigeration and air-conditioning industry’s male-dominated nature has presented the CQ University grad – and her mum – with plenty to prove.
“The hardest challenge I faced was when I first started working full-time at Air-Rite and I would go to the construction sites with the project manager to better understand their role. Very rarely would there be a female on site,” she says. “I often found myself belittled over the phone by male builders when I would request information too.”
Luckily a lot of that has changed since Roxi first started out, thanks to a greater number of women choosing to study STEM and get into similar fields. But she’s still just as passionate about supporting women in male-dominated gigs.
“Don’t let anyone deter you from what you want to do and what you want achieve,” she stressed to unenvironment.org. “Make sure you work hard and learn as much as you can so if anyone wants to doubt you, take satisfaction in proving them wrong.”
If we were Bachelor Locky, we know whose career we’d want to give a rose to tonight.
The Bachelor airs Wednesday and Thursday nights on Network 10.
