Careers Bites Update

On Monday 29th January our second ‘Careers Bites’ of this term took place with over 20 pupils and parents attending.

On this occasion the topic was about careers in Conservation by Old Churcherian Penny Banham. Penny, who, left Churcher’s College in 2013, presented a highly informative and fascinating talk about her careers in Conversation and how she achieved her role. Penny completed a Masters in Biodiversity Conservation Management at Oxford University last year and prior to that a BSc in Animal Science at Nottingham. She has spent the last 6 months working for the Southern Tanzanian Elephant Project (http://www.stzelephants.org/) in the Ruaha National Park, Tanzania running a research field station in the bush, collecting data on the elephants of Ruaha.

During the wet season in Tanzania Penny comes back to the UK to analyse data and write papers. As well as working as a scientist she also uses her and photography to promote the work she does. She has realised that many of her life skills were learnt at Churcher's with the support of teachers like Mr Saralis who believed that a mixture of art and science was a positive one and Mrs Jamouneau and Mr Knowles in the Biology Department who made her believe in herself. She also feels the World Challenge projects gave her the confidence to tackle the challenges of field work that is now part of her daily life which, at times, can be both exhilarating and difficult!

Penny is back in Petersfield at the moment and generously gave her time to do a talk and discussion with us. A number of pupils were every keen to stay in touch with Penny as she presented various ways that they may get involved - it appears that volunteering in Tanzania assisting Penny may be on the cards for a few of our pupils.