To celebrate International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we have been chatting to two of our Advisory Panel members working in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).
In this blog, Caroline and Nia answer our questions on why they love working in STEM and share advice for other young women who want to enter the field.
Tell us about your work and what it involves:
Caroline: I’m studying for a PhD in Mathematical Cognition, which means I carry out research and hopefully get it published so other people can read about what I’ve found. My research is all about how young children learn to count and recognise numbers.
Nia: I work as a Delivery Officer and normally would be visiting schools across Wales to deliver engaging computer science workshops. However, because of Covid I’m now mostly doing this through Zoom.
I want to help pupils understand that computer science and programming are interesting and exciting subjects.
What attracted you to this work?
Caroline: Doing research gives you the chance to find out new things and being able to work with kids and discover how they learn sounded really interesting to me.
Nia: It is incredibly varied. I present, write code, train teachers, test demos, sometimes all in one day! It is very hard to get bored doing this work, there is always something to keep me on my toes.
What is your favourite part of your job?
Caroline: Looking at how young children learn maths could make real differences to how children are taught in schools, which feels very exciting. I also get to spend lots of time working in preschools and having fun!
Nia: I have been doing work like this for a few years now and I’ve met all sorts of people and been to all sorts of places. It is wonderful to work with people who also enjoy the job.
What advice would you give to other young women interested in STEM roles?
Caroline: Reach out to people. Most people are happy to help you with advice or work experience and most science industries have networks for female members. Social media is your friend here!
Nia: You do not have to be Marie Curie to make an important contribution to STEM and studying STEM isn’t going to close any doors. Dive in see where it takes you.
Smashing career stereotypes is just 1 goal that we are campaigning on with young women.
Explore the issues to find out more about our campaigns for economic justice for young women.
