I am Letitia Wright, I'm from London and I am an actress.
I love telling stories that's the reason I got into it.
You have to see something in order for you to understand that you can do it.
That's why I feel representation is so important.
The recent character I was blessed to play, she is a scientist
and it opened my eyes to see how amazing science and technology, engineering and maths is.
Today I'm meeting four students who are involved in Shell Eco-marathon.
They have to design and build ultra-energy efficient vehicles.
I really wanna understand what it takes to be involved in the STEM movement, and I call it a movement because I believe it's very powerful.
Before we do this, I'm about to go sit down with Anne-Marie Imafidon to find out more about the world of STEM.
So STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.
It’s people realising things that they dreamt up or that they imagined,
whether it's driverless cars, whether it's new forms of energy.
A lot of people don’t think that women do technical things
and if you ask them to draw a scientist they draw basically Albert Einstein.
So, I’ve had the privilege of playing a version of yourself pretty much, I would say so.
And a floodgate just opened up for so many women saying, you know, thank you for representing us and stuff like that.
And at first I was just like putting it to the side like I'm not gonna get overwhelmed by that.
But I realised that, in order for you to do it, you kind of have to see it.
If you can see it, you can be it. It is what we talk about all the time right?
It's interesting the characters that you've played
are ones who might be very technically competent or very technically confident.
And so almost have been written to omit this kind of genius characteristic.
Whereas actually it's really important to kind of break that down
and be like ‘I identify with what that character just said and I don’t see myself as a genius, so why wouldn’t this be something I can do?’
I have a lot of respect for you. Bless you.
It was great talking with Anne-Marie and I am off to meet the young girls who are making a car from scratch for the Shell Eco-marathon.
If they can make something like this now, imagine what they can make in the future.
Hello, lovely to meet you guys. This is so cool.
Can I hop in? Okay, you guys are champs already.
I have some suggestions, extra padding for the booty.
My name is Kim Everett.
I’m Shaniyaa.
My name is Hannah Clark.
My name is Olga, you can call me Olya. And I come from Estonia, but I'm Russian.
My family's background is from the Caribbean so that's influenced my life a lot.
I come from a village just outside of Coventry.
And I'm from Clacton-on-Sea in Essex.
So tell me about Shell Eco-marathon and your involvement.
Shell Eco-marathon is a competition.
Done on set distance, set speed and set time.
It's a team event, it's fun.
The aim is to create a car that's like as fuel efficient as possible
It's probably the best way of applying your theoretical knowledge to build something not only that runs but also that is efficient.
Before when I've been doing stuff, it's just to like, get a grade for like a module, with this someone's actually gonna be in the car.
So, I want to make sure that the bits that I do make perform the way they're supposed to perform.
Being a driver is incredibly exciting
as you get to try out our product and actually race it.
The record is 3771km per litre. Which is basically the distance from London to Rome and back.
Which is crazy! On one litre of fuel.
What was it like for you growing up and was there any signs that you were into STEM at a young age?
Growing up I was really, really shy. I was really quiet, really under confident.
My confidence has changed massively since I've been studying engineering, it's increased so much. It's, it's incredible to think back
My grandmother she was a mechanical engineer.
She was always a role model for me because she is a strong woman that had a lot of challenges in her life.
And actually, she was a very very successful mechanical engineer at her time.
In the future I would love to be able to look back and say that I've made a difference to either individuals or the world itself.
Your involvement in STEM is to help people?
Yeah definitely, that's like my biggest driving force.
The whole point of engineering is to like solve problems in the world.
So compassion and creativity.
Yes.
Two C's.
Yes.
I love it.
My last question is how far can STEM take you, what do you think?
There is no limits. You can even go to Space, so you're not restricted to this planet.
The future is technology, technology is the future
and the more varied people we have, the brighter the results will be.
It's your imagination, that's all you're limited by in engineering is your imagination.
If you can think it, you can draw it, you can design it and if you can draw it and design it then you can make it.
It fascinates me to sort of have that process.
I love meeting you guys today, it has changed my perspective a lot. And I'm really happy and I'm excited.
You know I feel like I can tell my little sister that you can get into this subject as well.
And I'm also excited to see who's gonna win the Shell Eco-marathon.