Everyone deserves to sparkle
On Friday 17 March another group of Sixth Form girls enjoyed a Ladies Who Lunch session, this time with the impressive Ms Vome Aghoghovbia, author and Chemical Engineering graduate from University College London (UCL). Ms Aghoghovbia is 24 and spoke about her accomplishments to date, including winning the Young Engineer of the Year Award and having her first book published.
Vome grew up in a family of four girls and was brought up to believe a girl child can achieve anything if given the right opportunities. She attended an all-girl's secondary school in Lagos, Nigeria which nurtured her desire to see girls pursue excellence and defy societal limitations. Achieving A*AA in A Level Mathematics, Chemistry and Further Mathematics she went on to study Chemical Engineering at University College London (UCL), where she graduated with first class honours. Her experiences, in led her to write her book titled Everyone Deserves to Sparkle, about discovering your uniqueness, understanding the purpose of your gifts and unique attributes, and making a difference. Since the book was published she has worked with organisations such as Google, British Petroleum (BP) and Deloitte. In addition, she recently started a not-for-profit organisation, Aghoghovbia Foundation, which seeks to provide educational opportunities for young people in Nigeria. As a passionate advocate for empowering young people and letting them know they deserve to shine and can make the world a better place, we were delighted to invite Vome in to school to speak to our Sixth Form girls.
The girls were eager to hear about the charity work that Ms Aghoghovbia has carried out, working with young people in Nigeria and funding their education, and how she's set up a business selling soft drinks with her three sisters. She has achieved a huge amount and inspired the girls immensely. A number of the girls who attended the session are interested in doing Chemical Engineering and have applied to UCL, and so found this visit particularly useful; along with the huge sense of motivation that all the girls came away with, the girls took away the idea of having a focus for each day, or month, of what you want to achieve, and then putting your mind to achieving it - making larger tasks seem achievable. Ms Aghoghovbia chatted to the girls about how to prioritise important tasks each week, and the session encouraged students that they too can achieve great things.