STEMunity proudly introduces Holly Champney, a rising STEM star who went to school at St Edmunds Catholic School in Portsmouth. Holly was one of the pioneering students who led the BAE fish tank project back in 2016. Holly is studying at Southampton University and has recently been selected for a prestigious summer project but kindly found time to write about her inspirational STEM role model.

I am Holly, a second-year biology undergraduate studying at the University of Southampton and before I was born my mum (Karen) was an engineer!

My mum’s journey to becoming an engineer wasn’t an easy one. Her careers advisor at school was not very keen on this engineering plan, as mum had average GCSEs (CSEs back then) and so she was told maybe she should become a hairdresser instead. Mum was not convinced and carried on pursuing engineering (without the help of an advisor).

In 1984, her hard work paid off and she was accepted onto the Portsmouth Engineering Training Association (PETA) youth training scheme. This scheme was a two-year programme, that was then extended into a four-year apprenticeship at DCM (Tews) engineering Ltd. in Petersfield because they were so impressed with her progress.

She was later employed by Tews as a full-time worker in roles such as machine operator, quality engineer and deputy quality manager – essentially making parts for vehicles such as forklift trucks.

In her factory she was the only female worker, with engineering being a heavily male-dominated industry then and even now. Mum says she did not mind working with all male colleagues, but no one was very keen on going to the hairdressers or out shopping with her.

In 1990, my mum was the first woman in the South and the second woman in the whole of England to earn a National Vocation Qualification (NVQ) in engineering! I found this very cool – mum not so much but I think she is just being modest!

Engineering not only brought her numerous accolades, but Tews Engineering is also where she met my dad (Paul). My dad was also an engineer and loved to keep all sorts of marine invertebrates in his fish tank, developing his own natural filtration system using seaweed. Mum wasn’t so much of a fan, especially when she had to spend hours traipsing through aquatic shops! I would like to add that I enjoyed it very much when I was a child, although I never managed to convince dad to buy miniature turtles.

In 1998, mum was offered a job as a PETA engineering trainer and assessor – a highly prestigious role, however, she, unfortunately, declined the job as she was accepted into a fertility programme to have me!

In 2002, I was born along with my two brothers Luke and Lewis! Looking after triplets is not the easiest of tasks and so mum had to leave her engineering job behind. When we were all old enough to go to school, mum trained to be a teaching assistant, so she could do a job that didn’t have such long hours as engineering and allowed her enough time in the week to go to a coffee shop or two!

Now, my mum works as a communicator with deaf children in schools all over Portsmouth, but I think she will always be an engineer at heart (mostly applying her experience to various arts and crafts). She has never lost her skill for solving any problem – whether that be fusing three buggies together to make a triplet buggy or figuring out a way to get a rather large sofa out of a very small door with me (a very weak 16-year-old (at the time)) as her only assistant.

I always thought that her being a female engineer in a room full of men was the coolest thing anyone could do, and I used to be disappointed when she says she doesn’t want to return to her engineering career. However, looking back now, maybe that is what makes her even cooler, she paved the way for other female engineers, showing employers and male colleagues that anyone can be good at engineering, and then was able to step away, and leave that life behind and start something new.

My mum has always valued education and made sure that I tried my best so that I could achieve whatever goal I wanted. I would not be where I am today without her – she pushed me to apply for things I thought I would have no chance of getting and encouraged me to choose the path I would enjoy the most, not the one that was the safest. If I was in school now and we had a Heroes Day, I would dress up as my mum, with her crazy 80s perm and her factory overalls, because she was amazing even before she became my mum!