The University has been involved with HeForShe since 2015,
a really important part of this has been the Ideathon.
This was an event that took place in 2016 and we invited students to take part,
to come up with ideas about tackling gender based violence.
One of the ideas was theatre performances, this was an idea that came from a student called Sadie Alleyne
and she was saying that she would really like some sort of piece of art,
some theatre performance that really tackled gender based harm.
Just the everyday continuous eroding away often of women’s confidence.
I loved today’s performance it was really good, I’d read the script before so I knew what was coming
and that it was going to be a really good piece
and it was really effective in getting the messages that I really wanted through to the audience.
There’s so many more issues to do with gender, inequality, harassment in the workplace
that need to be addressed.
It’s about raising awareness. It’s about education and it’s about changing behaviours.
This year we’re trying to raise money for the centenary scholarships that the University is running,
which aims to support a hundred students between 2018 and 2021
to mark a hundred years since the University was founded.
The money will go into a pot that the University can use to give to people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
I personally received a similar scholarship when I started at the University
and without it I couldn’t have funded my place here,
so hopefully it’s going to help students in a similar situation achieve the career of their dreams.