#WomenInSTEM Interview
Welcome back all you Steminists! It's so nice to see you're back for more Cellfie! Over the couple of days we have started uploading blog posts on cool topics and this is the second of our series "#WomenInSTEM Interviews". Today, we have interviewed Ulrika Sultan who is a PhD student in technology education and also does lectures. You can find Ulrika on Twitter @teknikpedagog. Thank you so much for reading and thanks to Ulrika foro your fabulous answers, we loved reading through them! :)
Cellfie: What is your favourite science joke?
Ulrika:
Cellfie: We absolutely love this! There is never a bad time for a science joke! One of our favourites is "Be like a proton and stay positive!"
When did you first realize you wanted to do STEM?
Ulrika: I have always loved STEM even before I understood it was STEM. Curious mind wanting to understand the world and always been a creative and problem-solving person.
Cellfie: Totally! We believe that STEM isn't just a selection of subjects- it's a personality trait and a way of life!
Did you ever want to do anything else?
Ulrika: I had a few other plans growing up, going into music professionally, but STEM was always near. When playing music, I was thinking about the physics of sound. When maintaining my music instruments, I explored the engineering of the instruments.
Cellfie: Wow, now that's impressive! 4/5 of our founders are talented musicians! The instruments we play between us are: piano, drums, viola, violin and flute! It's just @ScienceSoph that hasn't jumped on the music bandwagon and you should hear her awful singing! :)
Who were your role models growing up?
Ulrika: My mother. Unafraid of trying to solve technical or engineering problems even though she has no formal education in STEM. I also was super inspired by intelligent fictive characters such as Bonnie Barstow in the TV-series Knight Rider. She was the AI-car K.I.T.T:s head mechanic.
Cellfie: She sounds fabulous! You must be so proud to have such a strong, inspirational mother!
What was the most embarrassing moment in your life?
Ulrika: I was 14. On my period. Bleed through the pad during a lesson. Didn’t notice until I got up from the chair. The chair was new and made of pinewood and it really was obvious…. Thankfully I had black pants on, so the leaking didn’t show when I left the room and walked in the corridor. Sooooo embarrassed but somehow nobody noticed. It is one of those things that can happen being female but when being a young woman and that it happened in school. Oh, I felt horrible and embarrassed.
Cellfie: Oh no! We can definitely relate; sometimes being a young girl is really tough! We need to normalise conversations about moments like these because they are so common and no girls should feel ashamed!
What is your favourite food and shop?
Ulrika: Veggie lasange and I love second hand shops! Reuse, remake. Fun, good for the envrionment, creative and a source of great fashion statements!
Cellfie: Ahhhhh lasange! One of our favourites too! It's the best mix of everything! It's so cool you're vegetarian, sustainability and combatting climate change is something the Cellfie team is extremely passionate about! Cellfie are in love with the current upcycling trend, we think the initiative of recycling clothes is so good-especially because of the detrimental affect fast fashion has on our environment.
Have you ever had any setbacks or been told you are a girl so cannot do tech?
Ulrika: Yes! I've not been told I cannot do tech but have had my tech interest questioned and my competence and skills questioned and challenged. From STEM teachers thinking only boys was interested in their subjects, teachers not believing my interest was sincere to strangers getting surprise I love tech. I have had to defend my interest in tech in a whole different way than my male colleagues have. Which is an interesting experience.
Cellfie: Urgh! This is such a common problem that is afflicting many young girls that wish to pursue a career in STEM fields. Girls shouldn't have to defend their competency; our ability should be assumed. If you have the same qualifications as a male counterpart, you deserve the same respect and opportunities!
What’s one thing you’d like to change about the STEM community?
Ulrika: I want more diversity. More voices heard, socio-economic and geographical diversity. I want a community where girls and women are possibilities instead of counting us as %. Instead of saying we want 30% women in our organisation I would like to hear them say we want diversity because we want to create the best products/world possible and therefore we need a variance of brains, experience and knowledge (= women!) and we are going to support girls and women to make that happen.
I want us to talk more about things that challenge us. It is not a bad thing to fail and having to try and try again. We learn a lot from it, and it should be seen as a natural process towards learning instead of something to be hidden or ashamed for.
Cellfie: Now this is why we set Cellfie up! Our whole team are passionate about increasing diversity in STEM, it was our motivation behind this whole project. We agree that failure should also be normalised; no one is successful without any effort and push backs!
Finally, what is your message for young girls wishing to pursue a career in STEM?
Ulrika: It isn’t always easy to be a girl in love with STEM. Sometimes you are the only one in your class or in your circle of friends. But stay on track! Follow your passions. Don’t dumb down to fit in. Stand and stay strong and find your community.
Cellfie: Preach girl! This is fab! No girl should ever feel that she has to pretent to be less smart to boost someone else's ego!
So that is it for today's interview with the wonderful Ulrika! Thank you so much for reading and we want to thank Ulrika again for taking part. Make sure you subscribe to the blog, check out other pages of our website and check out our Twitter, Instagram and TikTok all on @cellfiemagazine.