This week during Form Time, Senior School year groups have focussed on “breaking the glass ceiling”. Year 10 presented their form meeting on the subject on Wednesday. The girls researched “the glass ceiling” in Careers lessons during last half term, watching TED talks defining the glass ceiling and giving practical advice about how to break it. Vivian (Year 10) said, “A good way to shatter the glass ceiling is to draw upon contacts with other women who have done a similar kind of role before you.”
In the spirit of this, Tori Brown, an ex-pupil, kindly came in today to talk to College girls about her career pathway and her experience of the applications process for the graduate programme with Astra Zeneca. Tori was chosen as one of four successful applicants out of a pool of 4000, so her insights were invaluable to the girls. Georgiana in College I said, “It was perfect timing as I had been considering applying to study a degree in Chemistry but I was concerned about the isolation of being in a laboratory by myself in the future. It was so good to hear about all the related careers I could pursue if I chose this degree path.”
Elisha in Year 10 had said, only the day before, that “A key way to break the glass ceiling is to encourage young girls to take on leadership roles.”
Year 11 exemplified this during the week as they organised and delivered Games in the Dark for the rest of the Senior School to enjoy. Tori Brown recollected her memories of Games in the Dark when she was at school and remarked that “When I told people about it later at university, no one believed me, it was one of the most fun things we did at school.”
It is truly inspiring to see Mounties competing in the world of work and living adventurously in all they do and a real privilege to be part of their journey.
– Claire Nuttall, English Teacher
“I didn’t know there were so many other parts to manufacturing the vaccine. Another person said she was surprised to learn that you didn’t need Maths to study Pharmaceuticals.” – Eleanor (College I)
“As an A-Level Chemistry student, I found Tori’s lecture very interesting. I wasn’t planning to go into a career in Chemistry, because I’d assumed it was all laboratory work. Hearing what she said about her year in industry was informative because it seemed like she did something different every day.” – Georgina (College II)
“It was informative to hear about how the vaccines are made. There are so many avenues which a degree in Chemistry can lead to.” – Kveta (College I)
“When you think about Chemistry, you think automatically about becoming either a teacher or working in a laboratory. But many people take up careers that are not really related to Chemistry after graduating.” – Yuki (College II)
“Subjects like Chemistry which you would traditionally think of as being laboratory-based, can actually lead into many different careers. And that can be applied to so many different courses where you have a set view of what you think they’re going to be but actually there are many different avenues it can lead to.” – Izzy (College I)
“I found it interesting how Tori told us all the steps she had to take to get to where she was and how resilient she had to be to get there, and also how she experimented with different jobs and opportunities.” – Rosie (College I)
“From a personal perspective, I thought it was really interesting to see how a Chemistry degree can lead to so many different options. She is doing something quite different to what I would expect from someone with a Chemistry degree. She also shared with us all the obstacles she overcame and how she learned from all the different things that she did, for example how her year in industry helped her understand that she wanted to do more, and that’s how she got her job.” – Louisa (College I)