Meet Victoria Sood and Faria Tabassum, our In2scienceUK alumni team, who joined us earlier this year! In this Q&A, they tell us what they’ve been up to so far to support past participants of our In2STEM and In2research programmes to navigate their next steps.
First of all, tell us a bit about yourselves!
Vikki: My name is Vikki, and I have recently joined In2scienceUK as the In2research Alumni Officer, working with our alumni at different points in their STEM careers. Before joining In2scienceUK, I worked at two UK universities and ended up specialising in working with STEM students.
I was really drawn to In2scienceUK, as I think that the chance it gives to young people to undertake a meaningful work placement and find out more about careers in STEM makes it stand out as an organisation. Working here fits in with my values in terms of helping people progress to the right career for them.
Faria: I’m Faria, the In2STEM Alumni Officer, and I primarily support Year 13 students in finding STEM opportunities so they have a wide range of choices when considering their next steps. Before this role, I was working in a large sixth form college to support students with their destinations.
Widening access to education is something I have always felt strongly about, and I led on a number of initiatives while I was at university myself. Education shouldn’t be a barrier to anyone, and this role allows me to support students to achieve their ambitions, no matter their backgrounds!
What is working at In2scienceUK like? Tell us a bit about your role.
Vikki: There is always something going on! My role involves a lot of communication with alumni, so as part of that, I send a monthly newsletter out with updates and available opportunities.
We also support wider team events, such as In2STEM’s programme inductions and the wider celebration event that is coming up in September. I’m currently working with members of the wider In2scienceUK team to think about how we can collect some meaningful feedback from alumni to help plan future events and shape our plans.
Faria: Like Vikki, I interact with our alumni community regularly through the newsletter. I also connect alumni to the work we’re doing at In2scienceUK by organising volunteering opportunities.
Vikki and I are also working on a project to integrate more alumni voices in the work of In2scienceUK to make sure that the programmes we run continue to reflect the needs and interests of the communities we serve.
What does In2scienceUK’s alumni support look like?
Vikki: As we mentioned, a big part of it is publishing events and activities through the newsletter and emails that could be helpful for our alumni community so that they can continue to develop their STEM and research skills.
Faria and I work closely together as a team to help organise workshops that may be of interest to alumni from both programmes, and this is an area that we will develop further as we settle into our roles.
What’s been your favourite part about working with alumni so far?
Vikki: For me, it has been hearing what the In2research alumni have been up to since completing their programme! It’s been very inspirational to hear how participants have moved on to master’s and PhDs, and that they are enjoying their studies.
I’m also looking forward to meeting some of the current In2research cohort at this year’s celebration event and hearing firsthand about some of the things they got up to during their placements.
Faria: I have really enjoyed conducting research to understand how we can better integrate alumni voices into our work. Representing the communities we serve at every level of work we do is essential to fulfilling our mission of supporting people into STEM education and careers, and to also change the culture in these sectors to be more inclusive.
What have you got in store over the next few months?
Vikki:We have just facilitated two workshops together this month in collaboration with the LCG Group, the NIHR, and we have a workshop coming up all about careers in intellectual property law with HGF, which will be great. It’s fantastic that we have partners who are enthusiastic to share their insights with alumni.
Next, we are looking at how we can involve our alumni more in our work, so we are both excited to think about how we can take that forward!
Faria: We will also be hosting a number of workshops for current In2STEM participants over August which alumni can get involved with by volunteering to speak on the panels. Our current participants highly value learning from the experiences of alumni. It’s a great way to share your insights and get public speaking experience, so please get involved if you can!
If you would like to get involved in offering opportunities to In2scienceUK alumni, we’d love to hear from you! Please get in touch via [email protected] to find out more.