STEMettes at Imperial!

Apologies in advance for this late blog post but on the 5th of December, Imperial was filled with hundreds of teenage girls, 8 panellists, some of the amazing women in physics at Imperial and lots and lots of food for the #RoutesToSTEM event held with the STEMettes! I was lucky enough to be a volunteer at the event and I think it's safe to say that I benefitted from the event as much as the teenagers did! It was such an inspirational event and the girls left Imperial with a smile on their face and wanting to pursue a career in STEM!

A few highlights from the event first:

Proud to be a STEMette!

Lecture theatre is packed!

Setting up registration desk with Imperial prospectuses. Picture courtesy of Jess Wade.

The lecture theatre was full of teenage girls - am liking what I see!

Registration desk - badges, pens and stickers galore!

Tweeting like crazy for @WiP_IC (Women in Physics at Imperial College). Picture courtesy of the STEMettes. 

The Women in Physics at Imperial College dream team! From left to right: Dr. Felicity McGrath, Faculty of Natural Sciences safety officer, Dominika Mulak, second year undergrad, me and Jess Wade, doctor-to-be. They were all an amazing help on the day and inspired the students at the event as amazing women in physics at Imperial College. Picture courtesy of STEMettes. 

So what was the event about? It was all about promoting women in STEM and getting the younger generation of women inspired to pursue a career in STEM and not be put off by negative stereotypes. The event revolved around 8 main panellists:

Lucinda Sandom-Allum, ICU President. Picture courtesy of the STEMettes.

Lucinda Sandom-Allum, President of Imperial College Union
Cool facts about Lucinda:
- She was an IVF baby! #BornWithSTEM
- She fell in love with STEM through Star Wars when she was younger #OhYeah
- She's thinking of going into politics to represent science in politics #STEMCanLeadYouAnywhere #RoutesToSTEM

Dr. Androula Alekou

Dr. Androula Alekou, post-doc at Oxford, chair of Oxford Women in Physics Society and she did her PhD at Imperial!
Cool facts about Androula:
- She's worked at CERN and Fermilab! #Wowza

I was inspired by her work and how she's not only done a PhD but is now a post-doc! Would love to follow in her footsteps and it's lovely to see that other women in physics have done it so so can I!

Floriane. Picture courtesy of STEMettes.

Floriane Fidegnon, OutboxIncubator Executive, STEMette, on the British Science Association youth panel and aspiring engineer. 

Olivia Smith. Picture courtesy of the STEMettes.

Olivia Smith, Office 365 Customer Success Manager
Cool facts about Olivia:
- She studied architectural engineering! #WomenInEngineering
- She got into Microsoft through Yammer.
- She took Maths, Chemistry, Physics and Music at A level #WhereCouldSTEMLeadYou

Emma-Ashley Lies. Picture courtesy of STEMettes.

Emma-Ashley Liles, software developer for online music streaming
Cool facts about Emma-Ashley:
-She makes sure that when you play music it starts almost instantly after you press play!
- She used to teach others how to code.

Sophie Dean. Picture courtesy of STEMettes.

Sophie Dean, CEO of BrightLittleLabs
Cool facts about Sophie:
- She started from humble beginnings - her teacher said she'd never achieve but #LookAtHerNow !

Sarah Chapman. Picture courtesy of STEMettes.

Sarah Chapman, co-founder and CEO of Iwana Energy (a solar energy company)
Cool facts about Sarah:
- She is one of Management Today's 'Top 35 Women under 35' !! #Awesomeness
- She studied Maths and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge!

Jamie Edge on the left. Picture courtesy of Jess Wade.

Jamie Edge, freelance successful iOS developer
Cool facts about Jamie:
- He's Barclays' youngest ever employee at only 15!
- He's developed an iPhone app for the WISE campaign
- He loves chocolate! (And so do we!)

With just 8 panellists we can clearly see that something they have in common is STEM yet they've gone to do such varied careers. In my eyes, you can do anything with STEM and the only question left to ask is, where will STEM lead you?

After the panellists had spoken it was time for some food and networking in the #GetToKnow session:

Jamie inspiring some students.

Olivia answering as many questions as she can!

Get to know session
This was the perfect opportunity to inspire the students and share my Imperial College experiences. I wasn't part of the panel yet the students still came up to me and were not shy to ask questions - am liking their style! I would recommend anyone to make the most of any type of networking event and ask questions - you never know who you might meet and how that will influence your life!

So many of the A level students asked about interviews, UCAS, Imperial life and how to make their personal statement stand out. It was an honour to answer their questions and do my little, tiny bit to help them on their way up the education ladder.

There was also some great food and personalised cupcakes to energise us while we network!

Personalised STEMettes cupcakes and lots of munchies. 

After this the session resumed with prizes given out the the girls who had filled in the quiz the best! And gifts were given to the panellists. 








All in all, the event was a huge success and so many of the girls left inspired and encouraged to stay in STEM. A lot of them were keen to come back for more events at Imperial #BONUS ! I also left with a smile on my face having hopefully helped at least one of the students and also having met some inspiring and amazing #PeopleInSTEM ! Never listen to what the negative people around you say, stick with your gut, believe in yourself, follow your dreams and most importantly be the best that you can be! Woo! Remember you're the best! :)

I cannot finish this blog without thanking Jess Wade who made all this possible. She's such an amazing person that consistently works hard to beat the negative stereotype held in STEM which is full of things like 'Physics is not for girls' or 'girls aren't good at maths'. She works so hard to make these events not only happen but are successful and everyone that attends leaves with a smile on their face and are empowered to continue pursuing STEM! It was because of her that I was able to attend this event and hopefully inspired some students along the way too. She's a huge inspiration! Thank you Jess!

Wonderful Jess Wade, being an inspiration as always. Picture courtesy of the STEMettes. 

Find more pictures and videos from the event at the Imperial College Women in Physics Twitter account: @WiP_IC and the Facebook page here. Here's the Imperial College article of the event written by Jess.

A huge thank you to the STEMettes for holding the event too! It was great and I loved it! Cannot wait for the next!