Shekemi Denuga / Student of Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Student of Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Shekemi Denuga by Adrienne Geoghegan

Twenty-year old Nigerian-Irish woman, Shekemi Denuga, has always enjoyed ‘a really good challenge.’ As a child she was ‘curious about everything, from why people have different eye colours, to what things are made of.’  While Denuga did not have many role models growing up, her father’s emphasis on education steered her in the same direction and a good education became a top priority for her. As she got older, science became a lot more than a subject to her; it became her passion.

This passion was further fostered in secondary school (Coláiste Bríde, Clondalkin) when Denuga became involved in the Young Social Innovators Community Programme. Along with a group of other young people, Denuga developed a ‘Breaking Boundaries’ scheme with the aim of ‘changing perceptions, promoting unity and making connections within our community.’ The initiative was launched by inviting various different groups of people to the school to speak about their own experiences and the issues they faced within the community. They also held a ‘positive day’ which included writing post-its of encouragement on every locker, among other things, to inspire positivity.

‘It took time for me to truly realise I belonged.’

Despite organising positive initiatives such as the one above, Denuga herself faced a lot of ‘self-made barriers of self-doubt and feeling inadequate.’ Not only was she anxious of the racial difference between herself and her classmates, but also the class difference. For this, she pushed herself even harder to ‘keep up’ with her peers, however, when she got her results and performed exceptionally well, ‘it was the first time I felt I deserved my place here and that I might actually be good at doing what I love.’

In her final year of secondary school, Denuga remained unsure of what course she wanted to pursue in university. Like a lot of students, she was tempted to choose her course based on the subject she best excelled at, which at the time, was biology. However, when she came across UCD’s common entry science course – which would allow her to explore her love of science before specializing – she knew it was right for her. It was here that she met her ‘first true role model in chemistry’ – a teaching assistant named Lola; ‘It may not seem like much, but she was the first black female scientist I had ever met, and for the first time I could see myself in someone else doing what I loved.’ Because of this meeting, Denuga was encouraged to believe in her own capabilities and henceforth adopted an ‘if she could do it, so can I’ mentality.

As well as pursuing her love of science, Denuga joined the Africa Society in UCD as the Events Officer for the academic year 2017/18. It was her job to execute the plans organised by the society as a whole, make sure no details were overlooked, and that all events ran according to plan. A lot of these events were focused on ‘creating a sense of community within the African population of UCD’ but also ‘including non-African students to teach them about where we came from.’ Denuga was able to chase yet another passion when she helped to co-found the Gospel Choir with friend Grace Oladepo and three others. Oladepo, who was already a member of the music society, approached the committee to ask if they could temporarily build the Gospel Choir under the umbrella of the Music Society until they could have their own society approved. While decisions regarding song choices were decided as a team, Denuga became the head conductor, and often led performances. Her participation within the society turned out to be ‘one of the most fulfilling parts of my education in UCD as I was able to do something with another one of my passions.’

‘Science is a never-ending well of knowledge. It is mind-boggling, exciting and challenging.’

For those thinking of pursuing a similar path in science as Denuga, she recommends coming to university ‘curious.’ Getting involved in programs like the Trinity Access Programme, Community Mentors and ‘anything that will put you in contact with people who may be walking down the same path as you career-wise’ is a good step forward. Denuga is currently (Oct 2019) in her final year of Medicinal Chemistry which she feels was a perfect mix of ‘chemistry and the biology of human diseases.’ Her ideal job out of college would be ‘something where I can continue to gain more knowledge such as Research and Development in the pharmaceutical industry.’ Her final bit of advice: ‘the more information you have, the more able you are to make an informed decision about your future.’

Update (August 2021)

In August 2021, Shekemi updated us with what she’s been up to more recently. Since last we spoke in 2019, she’s graduated with a First Class Honours Degree in Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology from UCD, and was awarded the Travelling Studentship Scholarship from National University of Ireland to pursue her postdoctoral studies at UCD investigating novel methods to detect infectious diseases.

Since graduating, she had also been looking for a way to share her passion for education with others, particularly minorities in disadvantaged areas, which led her to co—found The Student Collective (TSC), alongside her friend Grace Oladipo. TSC is an initiative that aims to equip Leaving Certificate students with practical tips for navigating their sixth-year journey, to provide one to one guidance and mentorship for students who need it, and to promote the development of new skills and strategies to help students to realise their full potential whilst completing their studies. The Student Collective are on Instagram and LinkedIn at TheStudent_Collective.

Many of the things Shekemi intended to do during this period were made difficult to accomplish due to the mandatory national lockdowns over the Covid-19 virus. ‘It did, however, give rise to new inventive ways for us to cope with our new normal,’ Shekemi said, ‘I had the pleasure of working with Phil of Science and Aoibhéann of Little Big Questions, who worked with UCD to conduct Science Experiments that kids can follow at home while watching the videos. This again, was just an incredible opportunity in which I hope young girls, once like myself, can see someone they identify with on TV and dream beyond what they see around them.’

Watch more videos like the one above by clicking here.

Thanks to Shekemi for the photos and for taking the time to answer my questions.

This herstory by Katelyn Hanna.

Dr Aoibhéann Bird / SCUBA Diving Instructor and Examiner / Scout Leader / Education and Public Engagement Manager

Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Applied Physics / PhD in Medical Biosensor / SCUBA Diving Instructor and Examiner / Scout Leader / Education and Public Engagement Manager

Aoibhéann Bird by Adrienne Geoghegan

As a young child Aoibhéann Bird was fascinated with how the world worked, and particularly, the inner workings of her home dishwasher! Growing up with an electronic engineer for a dad, Bird was constantly helping him take things apart only to fix them again. Even though she did no science in primary school (it wasn’t on the curriculum!), her love of the subject was fostered at home through her father and sister, who was also an electronic engineer, and her mother who, as a bookkeeper, instilled in her an appreciation for math and accounting.

When Bird was ten, she joined the Scouts. It had only recently transitioned from the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland to allowing girls in, so she was eager to sign up. She learned how to construct shelters, build fires and cook food, and she went away for outdoor trips with her friends across Ireland and abroad. At the age of 18 she became a Scout leader ‘to give back because someone else had given their time for me.’ She eventually became the Group Leader and to this day she still works with young people aged 15-17 years empowering them to become active citizens, as well as managing the adults and finances of the group.

‘I didn’t really like writing essays, I much more preferred solving puzzles and equations.’

For her leaving cert, Bird took on physics and chemistry as she preferred subjects where she could be hands-on. She was one of just three girls in her year who took on physics, but this didn’t daunt her in the slightest. While she recognises now that that in itself can be a challenge for some people who are choosing their subjects, she knew she loved science and she was going to do it even if she was the only girl in her class.

In 2001, Bird started a degree in Applied Physics in DCU with the plan to become an astrophysicist. She was one of just two women in her course. After achieving some of the top grades in her class in her third year she was able to go to Connecticut, USA for a semester. Here, she discovered that while she still had an incredible interest in space, and would love to be an astronaut, she realised that astrophysics wasn’t exactly what she had thought it would be. She entered fourth year not really knowing what path she wanted to follow but she knew that she ‘still really loved hands-on experiments, space, and light.’ Her final year project in fourth year was to look at tracking the sun to study solar flares.

Following this, Bird applied for the Fás Space Science Challenge which saw 18 Irish students go to Florida to work on a project with the Florida Space Authority and NASA for three months. It was here at the applied physics lab in NASA that Bird was given the advice that in order to follow a path in that area she should do a PhD. When she returned to Ireland, she attended a showcase of PhD topics in DCU and the one that piqued her interest was in the area of biosensors and how one can detect cancer earlier.

Talking about the obstacles she faced throughout her PhD, Bird stated:

I wish I had have stood up for myself a little bit more and realised that I was an expert in that project, but I didn’t feel confident to express that and in hindsight I should have been more vocal and believed in myself.

‘I’ve always been on the water, my mam’s a lifeguard instructor so she taught me how to be a lifeguard at the age of fourteen…’

Diving during her exams in Aug. 2019, Dunmore Cliffs, Valentia, Co. Kerry.

Around the time she started her PhD, Bird joined the Sub-Aqua Club at DCU. Of her initial feeling toward it, she said ‘each week we didn’t know if we’d come back again because it was challenging, but we wanted to get through it and experience the fun of weightlessness, so we kept coming back.’ Bird has been a diver for thirteen years now and just recently (Aug 2019) achieved the highest examiner grade that one can get in Ireland, allowing her to become one of the leading examiners and instructors in the country. Because of this achievement, she can now apply to be part of the technical commission of the Irish Underwater Council. Through this position she hopes to mix her love of physics with her love of diving and ‘bring the education of science into a whole other realm’ through events such as Diving into Space and by revamping the physics lessons to make them more engaging for those learning to dive.

Training students in the DCU Sub-Aqua Club

Bird now works as an Education and Public Engagement Manager at Insight, the SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics. Here, there are a wide array of people with different specialities working on many different projects in many different areas. As Public Engagement Manager, it’s Bird’s job to showcase these projects to the public and demonstrate the cutting-edge research that’s going on in Ireland to the world. She also tries to bring the public into research projects, so, if there is a project based around smart cities, she encourages co-design and talking to people in those cities to ensure the project is addressing the concerns of people living in those areas.

‘Stay curious. Don’t think that you won’t ever be able to merge your passion with the sciences, because you can.’

Receiving her Gold Gaisce Award from President Mary McAleese in 2009.

Bird continues to do a lot of outreach to young people and parents regarding the uptake of science in school. In particular, she is trying to improve the number of girls taking on science subjects. Through being involved in scouting and doing a lot of activities outside of school, the possibility of being the only girl in science class wasn’t a challenge for her, and she recognises that ‘for some people it’s a completely moot point, but for others it is a challenge and that’s the worry that maybe those people won’t choose science because they’ll feel isolated.’ When talking to students she often showcases the research being done by women in the field of science and points out that it is possible, and a good idea, to merge your own personal passions with a career in science, like she has done.

Thank you to Dr Aoibhéann Bird for the photos and for taking the time to meet with us at Herstory and talk to us about her engagement with science. For more information on her go to: https://www.insight-centre.org/users/aoibheann-bird

After interviewing Dr Aoibhéann Bird, I asked her for any suggestions on where people can go to find out more about degrees and careers in STEM and she recommended the following:

·         https://www.smartfutures.ie/ - This website ‘is not all the glamour of ‘well every day I go diving with whale sharks’ it shows the real day-to-day stuff, it doesn’t hide the reality of the job. It gives you a good overview of the realistic expectations of what your job could be...’

·         http://www.iopireland.org/ - ‘The Institute of Physics run a lot of excellent programmes.’

·         http://www.sfi.ie/engagement/science-week/ - Science Week is a fantastic opportunity to meet and talk to people running events, they will happily talk to you about what that career is really like.’

·         http://www.engineersireland.ie

·         http://www.dublinmaker.ie/

·         https://festivalofcuriosity.ie/

This herstory by Katelyn Hanna.

Saoirse Exton / Climate Activist & Founder of Fridays For Future Limerick group

Friday For Future Limerick protesting on Thomas St.

Saoirse Exton

Student Climate Activist / Founder of Fridays For Future Limerick group

In August 2018, a fifteen-year-old Swedish girl took time off school to stand outside government buildings to ask for action on what she called the ‘climate crisis.’ Soon, other students began to join her, and together Greta Thunberg and her fellow strikers organised a school climate strike movement under the name Fridays For Future. There has been some form of protest in some country or another, every week since.

A network of Irish student climate activists was formed under Fridays For Future Ireland, and from that, local FFF groups were established right across the country to strike for climate change. Their aim is:

Exton on Week 1 of FFF Limerick’s school strikes in March

to force the Irish government into taking action on climate change in Ireland, we want our government to align itself with its commitments to the Paris Agreement and to do their part in lowering our emissions to the point where we can limit global climate change to a 1.5 degree average warming target.

In Limerick, fourteen-year-old Saoirse Exton first became aware of the severity of the climate crisis after she heard about the thousands of Australian students who went on strike on 30 November 2018. By researching what was going on, Exton came across Greta Thunberg and like many, was inspired into action.

‘The climate crisis is the most important issue that has faced the human race EVER.’

‘Sick of the negligent government and the dying planet’ she reached out to FFF Ireland and was told that there was no local group in Limerick, but this didn’t stop her. After considering where would be best to draw attention to her protests, she made some posters, started up some social media accounts and from there, the Fridays For Future Limerick group was born. Currently (Sep 2019) Exton does the majority of the social media work (she manages a Twitter, Instagram and Facebook account, as well as a website) but the group is quickly determining how this workload can be divided amongst the members equally. She also does a lot of planning within the group, while also encouraging others to join her, by public speaking. While initially Exton used to strike for the entire day every Friday, she has since moved into her Junior Cert year and has had to shorten the time she spends striking each week but insists that ‘I’m still here!’

‘The days were work-filled, hot and long, but after them we got tasty vegan food and a swim in Lake Geneva, which was incredible!’

Because the FFF movement was reaching an unprecedented scale with strikes worldwide, it was decided that for one week in early August, members from more than 37 countries would meet, which became known as the Summer Meeting in Lausanne Europe (SMILE). The meeting aimed ‘to create a global cohesion and coordination through several conferences, workshops and discussions. For our future, for a better society, for our planet.’ Exton, Caitlín and Roisín ní Chaoindealbhain all represented FFF Limerick and attended meetings with up to 400 other people from around the world at which the ‘demands, strategic goals and values and principles of FFF Europe’ were discussed. Whilst there, they met Greta Thunberg, who Exton remarked was quite a lot smaller in person than one might think and made friends with students from all over Europe.

‘Unity is the key to overcoming the climate crisis because people power is the only way. We have to put aside our individual differences and band together to send a message to the ones in power that enough is enough, and we want change.’

Exton addressing the SIPTU Limerick District Council meeting, 29 Aug 2019.

Exton is a true believer in unity and people power when it comes to tackling the climate crisis. She quoted the findings of the Carbon Majors Report which found that ‘just 100 companies have been the source of more than 70% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions since 1988.’ ‘How can we overcome the powerful?’ she wondered. ‘By binding together and pitching all our little bits of power in. We will become more powerful than the rich companies killing our planet.’

‘It’s amazing to think that our protests, here in Limerick, have an effect on people from different parts of the world.’

Generally, FFF Limerick have had a good response on the ground, and plenty of support from students and adults alike – on more than one occasion the student strikers have been offered punnets of strawberries by passers-by. Exton has been particularly appreciative of the Brazilian people who have stopped to talk to her about the Amazon Rainforest. She said that they in turn have appreciated the fact that small groups in places like Ireland care enough to go out and try to bring as much attention to the rainforest fires as possible and demand change from their government.

‘Our lungs are on fire.’ FFF Limerick protesting the Amazon Rainforest fire.

On 20 September 2019, a mass school strike is organised to take place across the globe, with nine strikes confirmed across the island of Ireland alone. Exton has been busy helping to organise a strike in Limerick, with the theme: Unity. Anyone attending will be asked to assemble at Arthur’s Quay at 1pm before heading through the streets to City Hall ‘for speeches, music and rallying.’ While FFF Limerick protest in the area every week, this will be the first time they march through the streets. In order that as many students strike as possible, another student activist from FFF Limerick, Iona Logan - with the help of her mother - drafted a letter to the Limerick City school management boards and principles regarding the upcoming strike. In the letter, it was mentioned that education on the climate crisis should be mandatory in their schools and that they hoped for their support at the 20 September strike. Appended to the letter was about fifty signatures ‘from a really wide range of Limerick people, young and old.’ As of 11 September, they had not received a response.

‘Your goal is to achieve climate justice wherever you live!’

Update: August 2021

In August 2021, we caught up with Saoirse again to see how she has been getting on. She had the following to say:

‘The past two years have been absolutely insane. I spent most of my time working on my activism. In the beginning of lockdown in 2020, I was heavily involved with Fridays for Future International, attending meetings and contributing to various Working Groups, but after a while, I decided to turn my focus to other pursuits, such as student activism.

In May 2020, I was elected as Equality Officer of the Irish Second-Level Students' Union, where I began to work on various projects, such as writing ISSU's first Accessibility Guidelines, and creating the role of Disability Officer. In October, I was selected to become a Country Coordinator for the Conference of Youth, which will be happening before COP26 in Glasgow. In November, I was selected to become a member of the youth-led MockCOP26, which was a mock session of one of the most important meetings of leaders and lobbyists on climate change in the United Nations. In November, I also started transition year work experience with Brian Leddin, a local TD, as well as being selected as a member of the C40 Global Youth and Mayors Forum, which aims to provide a dialogue between youth activists and mayors of mega-cities.

In January 2021, I finished up my year with the Climate Ambassador Program, and was awarded an Outstanding Achievement Award for my year of action. I also finished up my term as Public relations Officer with Comhairle na nÓg. In March, I became a Youth Advisory Group member for the Environmental Protection Agency, where I contributed to the Youth Engagement Strategy and presented the report's findings to the Senior Leadership Team. In May, I became a member of the National Youth Council Ireland's Young People's Committee, in June I became a member of Friends of the Earth's System Reset team, and in July, I became a member of the European Youth Parliament. It has been an insane and busy year!’

FFF Limerick on 20 Sept. 2019

Like all student strikers, Exton is eager for more people to get involved on the climate issue. She recommends doing the following:

·         Research; Read up on things, follow climate strikers from all over the world, read the latest FFF news, follow websites, etc.

·         Plan; begin planning where and when you are going to start your strike. Usually a very central place is good, where you can catch the attention of media and passers-by easily. People generally protest in front of local/ national/ international Government buildings, so politicians going into work will see you protesting.

·         Strike; write letters to local/ national/ international politicians and media about the climate, write to your school, speak to your boss or your union and try and get them to join for the big strikes.

The stress and seriousness of the climate crisis – and trying to resolve it – can become overwhelming, as Exton is aware. While keeping the end goal in mind, she tries not to do so much as to get burnt out and keeps her supporters close-by.

If you want to follow the work being done by Saoirse and her fellow students strikers, you can find them on Twitter (@Fridaysforfut18), Instagram (@fridaysforfuture.limerick) and blog (fridaysforfuturelimerick.home.blog).

If you’re in Ireland and want to get involved, you can contact: Info@FridaysForFuture.ie

Sources:

Thanks to Saoirse Exton and her mam Geraldine, for talking to me about FFF Limerick.

Fridays For Future Ireland, online at fridaysforfuture.ie [accessed 11 Sep. 2019].

Smile For Future, online at smileforfuture.eu [accessed 11 Sep. 2019].

The Guardian, 10 July 2017.