Third-year Natsci student Jess Morrissey has launched a new College Society specifically for female and non-binary undergraduates in the Sciences.

Jess, who has also just been elected as JCR President, says the impetus for the Society was to encourage female STEM students to share experiences and learn from each other, as well as receive mentoring opportunities from Fellows and postgraduate students. “Corpus is a small College,” she says, “which means it’s often the case that a woman is the only female in her subject, sometimes even for all three years of her undergraduate degree. That can be isolating.”

Jess has been involved with access work at the College, helping with interviews, Open Days, and outreach programmes such as the Bridging Course. “I first thought of this as an access opportunity to encourage STEM applicants but I realised it could be just as valuable for current students. I saw that there were quite a few female Fellows in STEM and postgrads as well, and they're all keen to meet up and talk to us in a way that might not happen naturally. The Society has already shown that we have such a strong community of women at Corpus who care about their subjects, are intelligent scientists and want to pass on their knowledge.”

The goal is to have social events (a barbecue at Leckhampton was one of the first get-togethers), as well as training and workshops. “We talk about careers a lot. I have alumnae who come in and speak about post-graduation pathways. And next term we’d like to do a research fair, where students and prospective students could talk about their interests and their research. We don’t have enough visibility of what other STEM students actually do.” 

Alumna Veronica Rogers (m.1995, Economics) who provided seed money for the Society said, “I’m really excited to have the opportunity to collaborate and continue to invest in the success of women and non-binary students at Corpus.”

Why did they choose to name the Society after Ada Lovelace? “I came across Lovelace when I was quite young because my uncle got me a comic book called Babbage and Lovelace Adventures. It was one of my favourite comics. I looked at Ada Lovelace and thought, okay she’s a computer scientist, she’s very impressive in her own right and she took ideas and applied them to different fields. And she’s cool.”

Main photo: A networking-and-pizza event for the Ada Lovelace Society was attended by Fellows Dr Jo Willmott, Rachel Lawson, Dr Jenny Zhang and Professor Alison Smith. Photo by Marina Frasca-Spada, Senior Tutor.