Stephanie Anani

I have a lot of passions in life, so much so that I am unable to pursue all of them effectively. However, what I do try and do is optimise the involvement of my passions in my day-to-day life. This was one of the main reasons I decided to study engineering – variety. It is a conglomeration of different skills, various aspects of the built environment and requires the ability to look into the future. 

I find my degree course (so far) quite diverse and interesting with a manageable workload. This allows me to pursue other passions, one of which is entrepreneurship. I currently work as a workshop leader for the Centre for Entrepreneurship where my main focus is facilitating and organising the Enterprise Challenge. However, that is not all my role consists of; I also advertise our events through stalls, class shout-outs and by putting up posters. 

I am extremely passionate about promoting Women in STEM. At the end of my first year of university (May 2017), I established the Women in STEM Society. The aim of this society is not only to create a community for women in STEM, but to create and bring awareness about development opportunities as well as reach out to younger generations. We work alongside our university as well as external organisations including Equate Scotland and Sanctuary Graduates. We currently have over 150 members and we will continue to grow. This is my greatest achievement because I believe everybody, regardless of gender, race or culture has the ability to excel in STEM. Therefore, creating a climate and platform for this to occur is essential.

In addition to these, I am a student support assistant (also known as a Resident Assistant), a student blogger, an international student ambassador and the co-founder and vice-president of the Civil Engineering Society. Despite my wide range of interests, I still am very passionate about becoming a Chartered Engineer and helping in the moulding of the future. I am particularly interested in energy production and distribution. To make sure I put myself in the best position possible to achieve these goals, I am consistently looking for experience to develop my understanding of the industry. 

My main motto in life – as cheesy as it may sound – is to do what you love and always try out new things, so you can find more things you love. Knowing my interests in addition to good time management is how I manage to maintain a busy, exciting and (mostly) stress-free life.