Raising aspirations for women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

I’m currently a second year Building Surveying student at the University of Portsmouth. However, it didn’t start that way. I came to Portsmouth to study Architecture but realised that it wasn’t quite for me. After doing some more research, I switched to Building Surveying – I’m much more suited to my new course and really enjoying it.

Growing up in Malaysia, I was exposed to the construction industry at a very young age because my Dad works in the field as a sort of Fabricator. He works with aluminium as well as timber and while he used to take me to his work sites I was never able to get involved because his work can be quite dangerous.

Now that I’m older, I can experience some of the things that I was never allowed to do when I was younger. We go on site visits and get to learn more about the technical stuff though practical experiences and surveys – it’s a lot of fun.

Studying a BSc in Building Surveying will give me loads of opportunities within the construction industry after I graduate. I can go into town planning or even project management. Right now, I’m still trying to figure that part out, but whatever I do, I know that I want to focus on the sustainability in buildings.

If I had to give one piece of advice to young girls who were thinking about taking up a career in STEM I would tell them to do whatever they enjoy and not be afraid to fail every now and again. Failure does happen but always persevere if that’s what you want and to never be afraid to ask others for their opinions and to always help one another along the way!

This blog post was written by Katherine Lee, Malaysia.