Copthall Empowerment Club

Empowerment club started in the New Year (2022) and has taken place every Thursday for the last two terms. The club consists of two monthly speaker sessions, where we showcase a range of successful women in diverse careers. So far, we have had a range of interesting speakers including: A campaigner for Green Peace; lawyers; doctors; influencers; political activists and most recently an International Project Coordinate for the charity Diversity and Ability. Students are invited to ask these speakers questions about their careers and have had positive things to say about the club. Here are some highlights about the speakers from our students:

• “My favourite speaker was Evgenia and my favourite moment was when she told us about how she had overcome the struggles and obstacles she went through to get to her position”
• “She was very inspiring because she had really hard challenges that life threw at her, but despite everything she still made it out on top”
• “Chante, because she told us that you can explore everything you are interested in“
• “Something I learnt was don’t be afraid to take up space and voice your opinion”
• “My favourite speaker was Anna the junior doctor, she was very inspiring and relatable in terms of my future career. She has opened many doors and possibilities for me.”

On the alternating weeks we also have two monthly activity sessions, where students are invited to be creative, explorative and empowered. Highlights from these sessions so far have included: Exploring what it means to be a good leader for International Women’s day, a ring making workshop (run by Y10 Alan Senitt Students) and a book review for Somalian Poet Warshine Shire’s new book ‘Bless The Daughter’. Below is a selection of quotes from the book review:

• “The theme of migrants/ refugee experience really hit home for me because I was not born here so I could really relate to and sympathise with many of the poems. It enabled me to reflect on the hardships my parents had to face to give us a better chance in life”
• “I think this is a very eye opening collection of poems about the lives of others and through the young persons perspective it shows readers that we can create change so suffering can end”
• “The book made me feel understood, like it was a shared secret amongst young black girls, especially Somali’s. My favourite poem Home captured the truth and reality of what it’s like to be an Immigrant.”
• “I’d never before felt so understood. The poet weaves the radiance of family and culture with the agonising realism of identity and unreachable expectations into a heartfelt web of poetry”

Empowerment Club is open to all students and will continue to run into our final term. Our next speaker on Thursday the 26^th of May  is L’myah Sherae, the founding director of Enact Equality, and APPG for Race Equality in Education.

Ms Konstantinou and Ms Midgley