My Journey into STEM and Other Tribulations

What is the issue with gender imbalance in STEM? Is it the issue like my family friend said about racial diversity in Operatic Theatre? - "It's not because we DON'T want singers of other backgrounds, it's just because we've found it doesn't appeal so much to them so it just looks like we're being racist when we don't mean to be." Which is a fair statement I guess, but up to a point. This statement may be true in the Opera world and it can be openly seen by going to the opera house, but is this true of STEM?  Are girls just naturally not attracted to it? Or are we as society maybe still a little biased to what girls and boys should do during their childhood? ... At one block party I happened to go to there was a young male guessing what degree everyone did, judging purely by the way they looked and dressed. What did he presume that the Chinese girl did? Engineering. What did he presume that the English girl did? Social Studies. I'll...

PI DAY PI DAY IT'S PI DAY Of all the things to be excited about, pi day is one of my favourite days of the year. My levels of childish enthusiasm soar through the roof and of course, must buy a Raspberry Pie to commemorate the occasion. Whipped cream is a happy option. Why do I love pi? It's irrational, it represents phase in electronics and it completely drives me up the wall in maths equations. Somehow memorising more than say 4 decimal places of it proves you're a hidden maths genius (well, back in year10 anyway) even though there is no real reason why you should know it to more than 2 dp. Pi reminds me that a letter can represent many things, it reminds me that even the most irrational of things can be beautiful and above all, I just find it a pretty neat symbol. Hope you all had a restful pi day and celebrated Einstein's birthday! Now what about that tau day.... Peace out, Ellie

Responsibilities? Responsibilities. I'm beginning to understand why people get so caught up in their own work and forget to pursue their real passions instead of just slogging away at what they HAVE to do to get by. Enrolling in university was the best decision of my life. I didn't know if I had what it takes, I didn't know if I would be strong enough to get through it and I didn't know if I would be able to do my degree. Turns out, it all doesn't matter. Since I posted last on this blog last year I've learnt so much. Sound cliche? Unfortunately, yes. I've had ups and downs, I've had arguments with friends, I've had breakups, make-ups and another breakup (when at uni, right? I never thought someone would actually try to hit on me using a maths pick up line) and some of the most amazing things have happened to me. Some of my proudest moments were when my start-up baby ReviseFocus got funding from O2 ThinkBig!  I became a STEM ambassador!  I...

This blog post is late for when it should have really been published. I felt that my personal views on this could be taken out of proportion and I didn't post it. However, I felt that even after a few days I cannot but express my feelings on this subject.  Today is the memorial day for THE catastrophic event. We all know the one, quite literally, THE One.  THE prime example of exactly why we should all be against terrorists and what they believe in.  9/11 was a tragedy, it was really sad and terrible and I can't imagine being one of the families who got affected. I was only 3 years old when it happened but I can still remember the chaos and shock felt by the whole world which still resonates till this day. I still tear up and choke back tears when I see video footage of the event on social media.  Honestly it's right that it's remembered to this day as one of the ghastly things that terrorists have done. People were JUMPING OUT of the buildings be...

Has two weeks really gone that fast? Will I have to invest in a Harry Potter-esque time turner? Outbox was such a thrill to be a participant of I can hardly believe it's all over.  The Outbox Graduation ceremony took place in Hackney, a disgruntling train journey, bus ride, tube surf and walk in the rain from the Outbox house. The clouds were rolling in and with the first few spatters of rain I'm sure many girls felt as if they were the main characters in a music video for the broken hearted. Our surprise video and Outbox song organised by us girls reduced almost everyone to tears. Am I heartless to have found this more emotional than my own secondary school "graduation"? All of these girls became my Outbox Family and some of us become so close in a week that even if we lived together for a year our friendship couldn't have gotten any deeper. We all shared the same interests in an environment where our passions were celebrated, not laughed at. Say a maths joke ...

-Inspired by Christina Astin on her Scientific Writing session where she told us in pairs to write a 10 minute blog post on someone who really inspired us this week at Outbox Incubator. This will also be my friend Carmen's first blog post, please give her new blog a look see! “When you start a business, people buy into emotions, not the product.” This is what Jeremy Waite said in the afternoon session on Tuesday this week. Who knew that a talk at the Outbox House about Marketing and Strategies and how to promote your business idea would have been so exciting?  Giving us insights into the 70:20:10 model for successful businesses when implementing products into the market, Jeremy inspired us all with his words of wisdom. Following this he introduced the One Sentence Business Model. This was a particular phrase that is structured like                  “ I’m going to do……to make……better           ...