I am a pupil at Invicta Grammar School, where I study maths, physics and product design and am also working towards an Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) researching seismic engineering. I’m hoping to go to either Sheffield or Nottingham university to study civil engineering.
Both of my parents are civil engineers and the projects they work on have piqued my interest. I did work experience with my dad working on rail alignments for HS2 and found this really fascinating and have carried on doing more work experience elsewhere since. I really enjoy it.
I first met the Rochester Bridge Trust when offering to volunteer at the South East Big Bang Fair, teaching younger students about bridge building. All of the trips I’ve been on have been so interesting, I particularly enjoyed climbing the O2 (which was my first trip with the Trust) and watching the Royal Engineers carry out a training exercise of a mock bridge demolition. It is remarkable to see the many different ways engineering is used in the real world.
I have enjoyed meeting the Arkwright scholars who have similar interests to me and who are all at different stages in their education or career – it is interesting to see what everyone wants to do.
Volunteering as a young leader at Guides for the 2018 year of engineering, I worked with the Trust to plan activities for our Guide unit to teach them about engineering – they were awarded an engineering badge at the end. We put on a range of activities and representatives of the Trust came in to talk about what civil engineering is, arch bridges, forces and other things. The Guides really enjoyed this as it was something they had not done before and they found it really fascinating.
My mum and I also visit other Guide and Brownie units to teach them about engineering with the help of the Rochester Bridge Trust’s education resources and activity ideas. We usually teach them what engineering is, get them to dress up in PPE and then do some activities like building bridges from whatever materials are to hand.
• Emily was recently presented with a Mynn Award for exceptional youth services, by Bearsted Parish Council. She was nominated for the award because of all the work she has done with the Guides, including being a Young Leader for four years and taking part in a trip to Nepal.