To celebrate International Women’s Day 2016, SI Woking & District helped Woking Borough Council to organise an Open Meeting intended to encourage girls and young women to take up science, technology, engineering and mathematics-based careers. Woking Borough Council also held an essay-writing competition for schoolgirls and the winners were announced during the event.
Three speakers made presentations followed by a discussion. The first speaker was Anita Wu, a chartered engineer who specialises in tunnel technology and is currently working on the Bond Street Upgrade Project. She was followed by Judith Bunting, a chemist and television programme producer, and then by Dr Angelika Lingnau, a neuroscientist from Royal Holloway University of London. All three speakers were lively and entertaining and fielded a wide variety of questions, particularly from the girls in the room.
Over one hundred people attended this open meeting, including a large number of school students. The feedback has been very positive.
Said by schoolgirls during the meeting:
“I’m a girl and I can do science too!”
“STEM subjects can unlock many doors for me”
“If there’s anything girls can do, it’s science.”