From designing farm machines to reshaping ag education: Indiana Rhind’s Groundbreaker leap

When Indiana Rhind applied for the 2025 evokeᴬᴳ⋅ Groundbreaker Program, she was an agricultural engineer who’d spent her career designing farm machinery and developing automation software. But on the side, her mind kept coming back to the same, curly question: Why isn’t agriculture a bigger part of how we teach young Australians about food, sustainability, and the environment? 

“There are 14,900 references to food and fibre in the national school curriculum,” explained Indiana. “New South Wales adapts their curriculum significantly, it has introduced food and fibre as a mandatory component of the Year 7 and 9 technology syllabus”.  

RELATED: National Food and Fibre Education Strategy

 That disconnect is now the focus of her PhD at the University of Wollongong (UOW), an opportunity that came directly from her involvement in the Groundbreaker Program. 

“A Professor at UOW reached out to me after evokeᴬᴳ⋅ 2025. I had done some research with them previously, but after learning I was a Groundbreaker, she got in touch to say, “We love what you’re doing and what you’re passionate about. You would be a great fit in our team that is working on developing equitable and sustainable food systems in a regional area of NSW.” I was encouraged to apply for a PhD scholarship and was successful” explained Indiana. 

“I’ve long been interested in the education system and how we might leverage industry experts in schools to effectively educate on agriculture, instead of relying on teachers to be the subject matter experts. Especially when they often don’t have the time or resources,” she added. 

“It’s not every day you get awarded a scholarship to pursue something you’re passionate about, so I jumped at it! 

Indiana Rhind, Groundbreaker 2025

A program designed to open doors

The evokeᴬᴳ⋅ Groundbreaker Program supports emerging leaders aged 18-30 from Australia, New Zealand, and the Asia–Pacific who are committed to improving agriculture and its value chain.  

Whether you’re building a research project, developing a startup, or running a community initiative, Groundbreaker provides the platform, mentorship and visibility to take your ideas further. 

As part of the 2025 Groundbreaker cohort, Indiana received: 

• A delegate ticket to evokeᴬᴳ⋅ 2025 in Brisbane, plus travel, accommodation and transfers. 

• An opportunity to present on stage, with mentoring support to develop presentation skills; refine ideas, research, or innovation; and build confidence as a leader. 

• Invaluable exposure to networking and capacity building opportunities 

• Facilitation of meaningful conversations and connections among the cohort of Groundbreakers, and industry professionals supporting the program, and 

• A $3,000 bursary to invest in professional development aligning with her strategic objectives. 

Throughout the 2025 program, Groundbreakers worked with Bryce Ives to develop a strategic plan for how they could best use the evokeᴬᴳ⋅ platform to achieve their goals, whether that’s securing support, making connections, or sparking a policy change. 

“I’ve chosen to use my Groundbreaker bursary for ongoing mentorship with Bryce,” said Indiana. “Bryce is so knowledgeable and well-connected across the ag and education sectors, so I’m leveraging that to bring an industry perspective to the framing of my PhD.” 

As part of her research, Indiana has just co-authored her first academic paper, focused on how agricultural education is reshaping the thinking of future nutrition professionals. 

“The research team at UOW ran an ag education program for university nutrition students, and the research showed a real shift. Now, when those practitioners talk to patients about healthy food, it’s not just about nutrition; it’s about how that food is grown. They’re thinking about planetary health,” explained Indiana. “Because if food is bad for the planet, it’s bad for me.” 

“‘What I’m eating has to be sustainable for it to truly be good for my health.’ That’s a perspective many of them didn’t have before.” 

RELATED: Exploring the impact of an experiential learning experience on nutrition students’ knowledge, attitudes and intentions towards sustainable and local food consumption

One conversation can change everything

If a PhD wasn’t enough, the Groundbreaker Program also sparked another career milestone for Indiana.   

“The other really exciting thing that came out of evokeᴬᴳ⋅ for me was a role with non-profit organisation, Country to Canberra. They help provide leadership training to young women and non-binary students from regional, rural and remote Australia.” 

“I caught up with Courtney Bailey, an ex-Horizon Scholar, at the alumni breakfast during evokeᴬᴳ⋅; she’s now CEO of Country to Canberra. I’ve since joined the organisation as sponsorships and grants officer, and as part of their subcommittee for risk and governance, to help increase the reach and impact of Country to Canberra.”
“I’m absolutely loving that, too,” she added. “It’s an amazing learning experience, and a great team of people.” 

“Agricultural engineering is what I was always passionate about,” said Indiana. “But I’ve moved into the ag education space because I saw there’s a real need. And I guess that’s the engineer in me; if I see a problem I want to fix it.”  

“And I just like to do lots of different things, apparently!” she laughed. “But honestly, if you care about something, and you want to be part of making it better, the Groundbreaker Program can make that happen.”  

Applications for the evokeᴬᴳ. 2026 Groundbreakers Program have now closed. Join us at evokeᴬᴳ. in Melbourne and meet our next round of Groundbreakers.