International Women's Day is Tuesday (8 March) and this year's theme is #BreakTheBias. To celebrate, we recently caught up with Schools and Colleges Liason Officer, Sophie, who motivates young people to study and even enjoy Maths.
1. Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your role at Royal Holloway?
I work in the Schools Team, as part of UK Student Recruitment. There is no typical day as a Schools and Colleges Liaison Officer! Some days I’ll be delivering talks and workshops in schools or online. On other days I might attend university exhibitions, or careers fairs in schools. This month our team is busy hosting school groups on campus, and arranging jam packed days in which they can experience university life. In addition to this, we offer a personal statement review service, and 1-1 sessions in which offer holders can ask any questions they might have.
Another large part of this role is to build relationships with schools and colleges, and to help departments with their engagement activities. That’s not to mention my longer term projects, such as improving our digital offering, managing our social media, analysing application data, and researching our target markets.
2. In your spare time, you write and edit Chalkdust (a popular maths magazine), where did your love of maths come from?
It’s cliché but I can’t remember not loving maths. I was lucky from a fairly young age to be introduced to maths beyond what is taught at school, and maths is so much more than what is taught at school! Arithmetic and numeracy is such a tiny fraction of mathematics, and is more of a tool really. True maths is problem solving and puzzles. It’s spotting patterns, and stretching logic to its limits. There’s no greater feeling than puzzling over a problem for ages, before having a flash of inspiration and spotting the metaphorical thread you must pull to unravel the whole solution.
3. How else do you spread your love of Maths?
One of the key ways I spread my love is my giving Maths talks to school students. I’ve been fortunate to be able to combine this with my roles as a Schools and Colleges Liaison Officer on occasions. I’ve also given some talks in theatres to audiences of over 400 students which have been incredible experiences.
I’ve also been invited to give talks and workshops in schools both in the UK, and elsewhere in Europe! Plus I’ve been known to dabble in blogging, podcasting, and larger scale collaborations with YouTubers.
4. What motivates you to continue to promote and encourage people to study and enjoy Maths?
I think Maths gets a bad reputation. People wear their hatred of Maths like a badge of honour, which they’d never do with other subjects. I’d like to show people that it isn’t as scary as they think it is and that maths can often be quite beautiful. A lot of Maths is the same as the problem solving that people do every day. Every time you work out what results are needed for your football team to top the league, you’re doing Maths. Every time you adjust a recipe for a different number of people, that’s algebra.
Another side to this is that women are still less likely to study Maths than many. There are so many factors at play here, but I think that two big ones are not having the confidence to do Maths, and not seeing role models. If I can even change that for one girl or woman then I think that’s a success.
5. International Women’s Day is 8 March, and the theme is #breakthebias, what does this mean to you?
To me, breaking the bias, means ensuring that nobody is limited by what’s expected of them. In my role on the Schools Team, it means making sure that nobody is put of university because they wrongly believe it’s not for “people like them”. In my Maths outreach work, it means getting rid of the stereotypes of what a mathematician looks like, and helping everyone to realise that they are smart enough to do Maths.
Interestingly, bias also has a mathematical definition. It’s the difference between what you would expect to happen, and what actually does happen. In Maths, as with other situations, the aim is to keep the bias as small as possible. And without getting too technical, the way to do this is often to reframe how you are thinking about things, which feels quite poetic and apt.
6. Are there any women in STEM that inspire you, past or present?
There are so many! Genuinely, the people that I’m most inspired by are the young women I get to meet. The enthusiasm and pure passion is so exciting, and it gives me a bit more hope about the future of the world. Seeing a girl get excited about Maths, or ask insightful questions, or tell me how she wants a career involving Maths, is a joy.
STEM is like any field in that often the people you hear about, are the people who have already had a leg up in life. Which is nothing against them, as they’ve still worked hard and achieved amazing things. But I love hearing about people who have fought for their education and still come out with a sense of wonder about STEM.
I also look up to women such as Maryam Mirzakhani, who was the first woman to receive a Fields Medal (often touted as the Maths equivalent of the Nobel Prize); Sophie Germain, who used to do Maths by candlelight as it wasn’t the done thing for women to practise Mathematics in her era; and of course Hannah Fry, who is a wonderful ambassador for women in mathematics.
7. How do you like to spend your free time?
I have a huge range of hobbies! First and foremost, I’m an animal lover so I spend a lot of time cuddling my dog (or any dog for that matter). I’m a big musical theatre fan, so can often be spotted belting out a show tune when driving to a Higher Education Fair at a school.
I’m also quite keen of a variety of sports. I was lucky to go to a university where sport was heavily subsidised so I learned to cox rowing boats, and to fence which I would never have been able to do otherwise. I turn into a real nerd during the Olympics. Talking of nerdiness, my other hobby (outside of more Maths and Maths outreach, of course!) is cryptic crosswords – I think the puzzle element appeals to the mathematical side of my brain.