Inspiring schoolgirls in Ethiopia
175 minutes for chemistry
Nigist Asfaw, our international representative for Ethiopia, spent her Time4Chem sharing her experiences as a woman in chemistry with grade 12 school girls at Addis Ketema High School in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
I am an Associate professor of Chemistry and have worked for the Department of Chemistry, College of Natural Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia for about 15 years before I retired in September 2016.
In June 2016, I was invited by the Institute of International Education (IIE) to give a lecture to grade 12 school girls of Addis Ketema High School in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and share my experience as a woman chemist. I was delighted to volunteer because I haven’t done much to engage with high school girls although I have organized workshops for university girl students and invite successful female professionals to empower them. I also think if girls see people like them in the careers they aspire they will have the determination to pursue their studies in the field of their interest.
The lecture was attended by about 50 students and it lasted for 1½ hours. The discussion was lively and very interactive. The girls raised so many questions regarding the hurdles and challenges I faced in studying science in high school and university as it was male dominated subject then. They were also curious about how I managed in work place being the only female academic staff in my department. I was impressed with the girls’ confidence and determination to pursue their studies. I hope some of them will study chemistry when they join the university. We had also discussion about RSC and they were excited to know about RSC celebrating 175 years. I believe they were very inspired but they inspired me even more to engage with girls like them and help them pursue their studies in science/chemistry in the future.
175 minutes for chemistry
As the oldest chemical society in the world, we celebrated our 175th anniversary in 2016. We wanted to mark this milestone by recognising the important contributions our community makes to the chemical sciences. We asked our members and supporters to dedicate 175 minutes to chemistry in 2016 and share their stories with us. We featured these stories throughout the year on our website, in print in RSC News, and on social media using #time4chem.
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