Session Three - Saturday 3rd December 2011

Thirty one Emerging Scholars came together on a grey, damp December morning for the Aspiration Olympics. Breakfast club provided opportunities to catch up with new friends, mentors and staff and start the day playing ‘commonality’ to learn a few of each others’ interests and a group game of ‘Samurai, Tiger, Grandmother’ (an interesting and more physical variation of rock, paper, scissors).

The first part of the day was Aspiration Olympics, beginning with two inspiring talks from Sasha Henriques, a genetic counselor, and Mamta Gera, an IT Project Manager with LoveFilm who is responsible for delivering ‘video on demand’ and worked on iPlayer. Both talked through the ‘step by step process’ and how they kept to their true passion despite the obstacles and challenges along the way.

The girls then moved on to the Step by Step game, coming together in ‘career’ groups (including medicine, law and communications) and mapping out some of the steps and challenges that they might face along the way. We ended with six paths of footprints across the school hall and a better idea of what might be involved and what was needed in order to get there. Two of the aspirations include being the doctor who researches and cures cancer and being the lawyer who uncovers the biggest miscarriages of justice to make sure the innocent people go free. We shall watch the progress of this with interest!

“I learnt that there are several barriers when achieving your dream or the job you want to do in the future. I understand that it will be quite hard but as long as you work hard and never lose sight of it, you will get there.”

The Red and Blue group swapped over from the subjects they had studied in Session One.

The English session focused on Ways of Seeing. The girls interpreted paintings, discussed the interpretations and challenged each other. The lesson ended with all the girls creating poems and with presentations to the class. The poems will be presented as part of the End of Year awards ceremony.

“I learned to write a poem out of a painting – this has helped me have a better understanding of the creator’s mind.”

The Art session provided an opportunity to look at objects and the impact on their surroundings. Ably supported by Forest's Art Scholars and Ashia Oozeer, the girls split into two groups to draw, conceptualise and then build willow sculptures and give presentations back to the group.

“I communicated well with people and took in different points from other colleagues. This will help me with future jobs.”

At the end of the day, we reflected on what we had learned and how to put it into practice in the weeks and months ahead.

Next stop is Session Four – Robotics, at Imperial College on Saturday 14th January.