Meet Emma: Success4All’s STEM Engagement Officer, Astrophysicists & Trombone Enthusiast.

Emma is our new Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics [STEM] Engagement Officer, who joined us in October 2020 after completing her degree in Astrophysics from The University of Edinburgh.

She is passionate about making science accessible to women and disadvantaged communities. As well as that, she also enjoys playing the trombone and cooking in her spare time.

We asked her a few questions so that you could get to meet her properly.

What’s your role with Success4All?
I am the STEM Engagement Officer. I work with Kirsty, who is the STEM Engagement Manager.

We design STEM workshops and activities which we then deliver to local schools and community hubs. Unfortunately, we’re not doing much of that right now because of the pandemic, but hopefully, we can do a lot more soon.

How long have you been with Success4All?
I started in October, so about three months now.

What did you do before joining Success4All?
I did a degree in astrophysics at The University of Edinburgh, and I graduated in the summer of 2020.

What was it like studying astrophysics?
It was good. My final year was probably the best because we did the most astrophysics projects where I had the chance to work with some hi-tech kit.

For my Senior Honours Project, I did a science engagement project, similar to what I’m doing now with Success4All, in which I designed an activity pack for primary school kids.

What does a day in the life of a STEM Engagement Officer look like?
No two days are the same. When I first started, I spent my time between working from home and being in the office.

The best days were when we got to deliver the activities that we prepared in school. Once the children finished, we would then gather some feedback which we analysed at a later point.

Besides being involved with the online clubs, I’m also tutoring with the Learning Hub and working on activity development.

Hopefully, when things get back to normal, our projects will be bigger and better than before.

What motivates you?
Reflecting on the times when things went well motivates me, for instance; when a kid enjoys one of my activities.

Everyone deserves the chance to experience how fun science can be, whether they want to go on to be a scientist or not.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
My standard answer here would be playing the trombone, but I’ve not played since I moved to Newcastle. Other than that, I quite like to cook, but pre-pandemic, I enjoyed going to gigs and catching up with friends.