“In celebration of International Women’s Day, five of us including our teacher were invited to an event funded by the Royal Society of Chemistry at Reading University to give a 10 minute talk on our favourite science heroine. We chose Dorothy Hodgkin (she played a vital role in the development of X ray Crystallography), as she was an inspiration to us due to her determination and resilience.

It was explained to us that we were competing against five other schools on the quality of our presentation and teamwork.

We heard presentations about many inspiring women. The trip was a fantastic opportunity to learn about amazing women in science (like Gertrude B. Elion and YouYou Tu) and to develop new relationships with the other participants and the members of the society. After each presentation there was a question and answer session with the speakers to understand the people, their influence or the science behind their discoveries better.

Our group was the second school to present and found the more we spoke the more confident we became; even though we were all feeling nervous, we stuck together and spoke passionately.

The day was truly enjoyable and inspiring and I am very thankful to the school and my teacher for giving me the opportunity to take part in such a wonderful afternoon.”