Claudia Carroll

"I have been interested in engineering from an early age. My grandpa was a draughtsman and my grandma was a tracer for a large engineering firm in the North East of England. I was brought up with maths and engineering as a part of my childhood, plus my grandpa and I spent lots of time designing and building things in the garage!

I was initially terrible at maths, being put in the bottom set of four when I started secondary school. Within a year, with the support of a fantastic maths department (particularly filled with amazing female maths teachers!), I moved up to the top set and sat my GCSE Maths early, did Further Maths and went on to study A Level Maths and Design and Technology. With the encouragement of my A Level teachers, I began a design project based on building bridges for developing countries to help support infrastructure after being inspired by a trip to Botswana. Infrastructure plays such an integral part in our everyday life yet most of the time we just disregard it as ‘just being there’. In Botswana, we saw how good infrastructure positively impacted development.

I honestly put Loughborough on my application on the day of the deadline, having struggled to choose between 5 universities. When I got an offer and an opportunity to visit the School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering, I loved it so much that I immediately booked onto an open day to show my mum how great it was! We visited on the most miserable, raining winter day but we were shown around by friendly students who made the experience great. Both my mum and I were so impressed that I confirmed the offer there and then! I haven’t looked back since. It is the most friendly, supportive and fun place I know.

I enjoy the supportive environment of my course and have particularly enjoyed the collaborative modules, which have opened my mind to different ways of working and pushing me to grow in confidence. I particularly remember our field trip in my second year where we spent one week working in teams to survey areas of the university campus in groups. During the second week, we were taken to the Peak District to do field work. Applying lecture-based learning to practical situations was really helpful and I am sure it will be valuable in the work environment as well.

Being at Loughborough as a female engineering student during the centenary of women being admitted onto engineering degree programmes here feels very inspiring. To think we have come so far in such a short space of time is amazing. Women now play such an integral part in developing the research and knowledge behind engineering. I take great pride in following in the footsteps of some of the greatest female engineers who fought for me to have this opportunity. Engineering is still a male dominated profession - you can still see that in my year’s cohort. There are still so many girls who feel that they are not equal to their male counterparts. I think there is a lack of natural confidence in most girls that leads them to believe they are not good enough or academic enough to be here but we are, and with the right guidance and role models (like Claudia Parsons) we can change the industry for good.  was not aware of Claudia Parsons until the name of the Hall was announced! I was very proud to discover who she was and how she carved the path, which I now tread. If it were not for women like her, who had the confidence in their own ability to pursue their right to have an interest in such a male dominated area, we would not be where we are today. I owe her a great deal.To inspire young girls to the engineering profession, they need to be able to see themselves there, and to do that we always need more female engineer role models, if not for now, then for the future.

I help out at primary school visit days where girls are being encouraged towards pursuing STEM subjects. However, this has to be nurtured and sustained through secondary school so that they retain that confidence in their ability. The environment has changed since I was at school, where I was still a relative anomaly to have an interest in engineering. The students I see now entering their first year, four years after I was in their shoes, have a different confidence and understanding of their abilities.

My hope for the near future is to continue onto a graduate scheme within contracting to further dispel the view that construction sites are only for men."