I had a fantastic experience taking part in the Women in STEM Podcast at Ó Fiaich Institute of FET as part of Science Week 2025. It was my first time taking part in a live podcast, and the energy in the room was something else.
I was honoured to sit alongside a panel of passionate STEM advocates, sharing our career journeys and experiences openly with the students in the room. The conversation flowed naturally, covering the realities of building a career and a business in STEM, the challenges along the way, and what keeps us motivated to do the work we do.
The reach of the event was what struck me most. We shared our experiences with over 400 students, both in person and across twenty-one schools tuning in live via Zoom. Getting to speak so directly to that many young people, many of them girls considering their own future in STEM, was a genuinely special opportunity.
My hope is that by sharing openly and honestly about our careers, we sparked some curiosity in the room and showed the young women watching just how many different pathways a STEM career can take. That’s exactly the mission behind Girls Can Code and everything The Code Lab does: showing girls from a young age that STEM is already theirs to shape.
Huge thanks to the team at Ó Fiaich Institute of FET for creating a space for such real, open conversations about STEM careers for women, and for hosting such a brilliant Science Week 2025 event. Opportunities like this one have a habit of leading to more than you expect, and this was no exception, it opened the door to a business showcase and a series of connections that have shaped much of what The Code Lab has achieved since.
