Thank you to alumnae Inspiring Change Makers

From Norwich to 26,000 young people across the UK

Earlier this year, Independent Girls’ School of the Year 2019, Norwich High School for Girls created its first-ever online conference event, a continuation of its pioneering Inspiring Females programme. In just one day, this event reached 26,000 young people across the UK, and garnered the support from over 45 outstanding guest speakers.

 

The Inspiring Females programme was first launched in 2016, with an event hosted at Norwich High with 20 speakers and an audience of 200 young women. Since then, it has gathered significant momentum, reaching 1,000s of young women aged 10-18, through inspiring events all shaped by amazing volunteer students.

Last year’s annual summit was held at the impressive Chelsea FC, with 40 amazing speakers inspiring over 750 young women from across the UK. This day was filled with Q&A panels, stimulating keynotes, interactive sessions, careers stands, networking and much more.

The initial plan for 2020 was to bring the excitement of Chelsea FC back to Norwich City FC – though like all large scale events, this has sadly been postponed until further notice.

Recognised for being a continuously growing and ambitious programme, a commitment was made over the Easter holiday that something had to take place to continue this momentum, to offer something inspiring to young people in these unprecedented times – and this is where the idea for Inspiring Change Makers Online was created.

The aim for this event was to replicate as much of the live experience as possible on a bespoke website. In just one month, over 45 speakers volunteered their time to create pre-recorded sessions or participate in live Q&As.

Sessions were delivered by top figures in their fields, including celebrity chef Prue Leith CBE, Chartered Engineer, Yewande Akinola MBE and CEO of the Diana Award, Tessy Ojo. Central to the success of the Summit was participation from many of our alumnae, who contributed amazing original content, Such as:

  • Content with Impact by Rachel Wang – Company Director of Chocolate films
  • The Human Centred Design Architecture Challenge by Jo Ashbridge – Founder of AzuKo
  • Greener and Cleaner with Parisa Wright – Founder of Greener and Cleaner Bromley (& Beyond)
  • From Coffee to causes with Chloe Smith – founder of Bigmoose Coffee Shop
  • If there were ever a time for creativity… it’s now with Genevieve Raghu – Artistic Director of Into Opera
  • A need for change by AOYA winner Louisa Blake – Founder of Looby Lou’s Lovely Lunches.

Other big names included Sunday Times Luxury Content Director Lorraine Candy and Olympic Hockey Champion Kate Richardson-Walsh OBE.

The website was launched on Thursday 21st May, reaching 26,000 young people, of which 95% said that they felt empowered to become a future Change Maker after participating. Takeaways from the young people who took part included “We all have the power to make a difference”, “Accept who you are”, “Be the best version of yourself”, and “Always try and improve the lives of others.”

 

The programme content is still available to view for free at www.inspiringfemales.org.uk