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30 January 2024
Since women make up just over one-quarter of the UK’s Science, Tech, Engineering, and Maths workforce, Berkhamsted Girls is countering the outdated narrative that females don’t belong in STEM roles. From creating a group of STEM Ambassadors in Sixth Form to hosting a Physics Fun Club for Year 8 girls. Most recently, our senior girls met influential individuals in STEM at our speed networking event.
Pupils spent half of the event in a seminar where they heard from keynote speakers Thomas Faulkner and Zoe Nicholls who study and work in Civil Engineering. Thomas, an Executive Vice President for Operations at Skanska, spoke to pupils about his favourite part of the job, “working alongside amazing people”.
Zoe Nicholls’ speech was particularly inspiring since she was in the audience’s shoes not so long ago. “I studied at Berkhamsted from Pre-Prep to Sixth Form,” Zoe told the crowd, “I’m now a Structural Engineering and Architecture MA student at Sheffield University”.
Pupils then headed to the Nash Harris dining hall to speak one-on-one with a talented cohort of STEM ambassadors who each had different STEM jobs. With only five minutes to talk to each guest, pupils didn’t waste a second before asking the ambassadors insightful questions about their jobs, from “How is your career helping others?” to “Did you always know you wanted a career in STEM?”
Interacting with successful people in STEM was not only a valuable chance to get our female pupils out of their comfort zone but a welcome reminder that they can pursue and enjoy STEM as much as their male peers.
