To celebrate International Women’s Day 2021 more than 1,200 students nationwide benefited from JA Inspires careers talks kindly supported by BNY Mellon.
Embracing the ‘Choose to Challenge’ theme, 18 eager BNY Mellon volunteers from Cork, Dublin and Wexford stepped up to the challenge to deliver virtual presentations to students from 15 second level schools.
The ‘Choose to Challenge’ theme aims to seek out and celebrate women’s achievements so that we can all help create an inclusive world.
JA Inspires is a 60 minute careers talk and Q&A which showcases the important stories JA volunteers have to tell. Students learn from role models from the world of work about their career and educational paths – inspiring students to see themselves in similar careers and to realise that skills they acquire at school are transferable to the workplace.
Following a briefing session hosted by JA, the volunteers connected with their assigned teacher and coordinated their virtual career talk. This was a very welcome, and impactful option, for students learning from home due to school closures. Students heard about the variety of roles in the world of finance, the different paths to these roles and the day-to-day working life of BNY Mellon staff. They were given the opportunity to ask questions and engage with the volunteer in a real and meaningful way.
Olivia Keehan, teacher in Mount Carmel Secondary School, Dublin 1, commented on her students experience:
“Our Third year students really enjoyed Sinéad’s talk. She was very kind, considerate and spoke to them in a very professional and caring manner. We would sincerely like to thank her for taking time out of her busy schedule to speak with to our students. It is great for our students to get the opportunity to speak with a female in the financial services industry and to motivate them to aim for the stars and inform them that life is not always plane sailing and show them how best to overcome adversities.
She used an excellent quote in her presentation – ‘The one who falls and gets up is so much stronger than the one who never fell ’ – and this really resonated with our students and I could tell from speaking with them that they enjoyed the presentation and were also motivated by it. Thanks to BNY Mellon for affording our girls this opportunity and we look forward to working with this programme again.”
Many thanks to BNY Mellon and their dedicated volunteers for ensuring this virtual International Women’s Day celebration was so successful.