HADIYAH QURESHI


STUDENT TO STEMETTE PROGRAMME:
MY EXPERIENCE



Set up by the wonderful Stemettes, this programme provides women in STEM mentors to young girls aged 15+. My mentor was Kirsty, who works in Deutsche Bank. Kirsty and I had 7 meetings in total, and we went to three events together, where I got to network. In our other meetings, we chatted about everything: where I'd like to work, universities I was considering, and we worked on my LinkedIn profile together. It was really lovely to have a professional mentor who helped me to think in different ways.



Matching Event: 4th April 2018



This was a lovely event, in true Stemettes style, with lots of food and refreshments! It started with a presentation by Yasmin, the wonderful Stemette who organises this programme. Then we were in a speed-dating set-up, with one side the Sherpees (the students) and the other side the Sherpas (the women in STEM). We didn't get to talk to all of the Sherpas, but we spoke to the majority of them! Both us and the Sherpas were given a sheet to rate our compatibility with each other, then we made our choices on who we'd prefer to have. Yasmin then went away and tried her best to match up the Sherpees with their Sherpas, and I was very happy with my choice!



FIRst Meeting: 30th April 2018



This was our first meeting - so I was a little nervous! Luckily, Kirsty could sense my nerves and she was so lovely to me. We played get to know each other games, like 2 truths 1 lie (which you can see in the background), and we also decided on some goals for the programme.


My goals were:

1. To decide what course I would like to study at university

2. To feel more confident in the STEM world

3. To try something new!



SECOND MEETING: 15th MAY 2018



During our second meeting we focused on Goal #1: to decide what course I would like to study at university. As you can see on the board, we brainstormed the universities I was considering and wrote up a pros and cons list of each university. It was nice to have someone to talk to about all of these things, as I was mainly just keeping them in my head! It also helped me to consolidate what I was looking for in a university, and what factors meant the most to me. I knew from the beginning that I wanted a campus university!



THIRD Meeting: 11th July 2018



During this meeting we focused on the professional side of being a young person interested in STEM and we worked on my LinkedIn profile. Kirsty helped me write up the tasks I had completed during my work experience placements and we worked on my biography. I always find it difficult to write about myself, especially on something professional like LinkedIn!



fourth MEETING: 30TH JULY 2018



As my Goal #3 was to try something new, Kirsty and I went along to a series of talks as part of the Codebar Monthly series. We had lovely pizza and the talks were really inspiring. The talks were also very accessible, considering I had no background in tech. It was a lovely event, which inspired us to go to a Codebar workshop!



FIFTH Meeting: 2ND AUGUST 2018



This codebar workshop was very fun - Kirsty and I had a few too many laughs while making our owl website! We both had support from a mentor, and we created a very lovely website (which directed any comments to my email!) Luckily, the website never went live, but it was very fun, and a good stepping stone. I am now learning how to code HTML and CSS!



SIXTH MEETING: 9TH OCTOBER 2018



Ada Lovelace Day Live was a series of talks to celebrate Ada Lovelace day, the national day for celebrating women in computing. We had all sorts of amazing talks: engineer Dr Hilary Costello wobbling a sheet of plastic to keep a paper airplane up in the air, palaeontologist Dr Susannah Maidment asking the real question we've been worrying about: can Jurassic Park really happen? It was such a lovely event!



seventh Meeting: 19th november 2018



This was our final meeting. In this meeting we reminisced over all of the fun we'd had and we filmed scenes for this video! We went all around Deutsche Bank looking for fun places to film - the revolving chair is by far my favourite! Check out this link to watch the video and see us in action!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD7KR1yHdo0&t=1s



This programme was so amazing. I wish I could do it all over again! I was in Year 12 when I started the programme, which I think is the perfect age. I wasn't too stressed about A Levels, although the programme took a break from May-June for exams. And I was just trying to find my feet so I got invaluable advice from Kirsty. If you're deciding whether or not to apply - do it! You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. You're the main focus of your sessions, so if you want to go to an event, let your Sherpa know! If you want to focus on something, like your CV, then just tell your Sherpa! With Kirsty, I gained a lot of confidence and a lovely role model to look up to and I am so grateful. Thank you to Kirsty for helping me grow, and a huge thank you to Yasmin for all of the hard work she put in for making this programme happen.