Meet Melissa: this year’s Mexichem scholarship winner!
Meet MACE Student experience Women in engineering 23 March 2020
Melissa Pace, who is in the first year of our Mechanical Engineering with a Year in Industry course, is the recipient of this year’s Mexichem Alasdair Sinclair Scholarship!
We caught up with her to find out a bit more about how the first semester in the Department of MACE has been…..
What have you most enjoyed about the first semester?
I’ve enjoyed seeing myself become more independent. I’ve had so many new experiences and met so many different people. I’ve made lots of friends and have had lots of fun living in Manchester so far.
Have you been involved with any groups or societies alongside your studies?
Alongside my studies I am involved in the EVO society (Engineering Volunteering & Outreach). I was involved in a project to design a fun activity to teach primary school children an engineering principle in a basic way.
This is part of the Department’s outreach to local schools to encourage children (from an early age) to think about engineering. My group designed a guillotine to break chocolate bars to demonstrate the basics of material toughness – it was great fun!
“I’ve made a lot of friends and had lots of fun living in Manchester”
What advice would you give to a new student preparing to start an engineering degree here?
Honestly, just try your best to make use of all the resources around you. Tutorials are really useful, particularly if you prepare properly beforehand. If you can keep up with lectures and tutorials, make decent notes, everything will be much easier. Also, join a society like EVO!
“I’m excited about what I will learn during the summer placement at Mexichem”
Congratulations on being awarded the Mexichem scholarship!
I feel really humbled to have received the Mexichem scholarship. It was a massive surprise to open my inbox to an email offering me this scholarship! I feel lucky to have been selected and I’m excited to see what I will learn during the summer placement.
What is the best thing about being a student in Manchester?
I grew up a few miles from Manchester and I’ve always loved the city. And it’s crazy that now I get to live here! Not only am I at a really good university, I’m in my favourite city. It was pretty cool to see a concert at the Academy, which is in the building that I can now call my Students’ Union and is just a 10-minute walk from where I live.
“I’d love to spend my career trying to better the world through engineering”
What do you hope to do in the future?
I’m still not exactly sure what I want to do in the future and that’s why I’m here at university – to open up new possibilities. I have an interest in the energy sector and the move away from fossil fuels. In particular, nuclear energy was really interesting to learn about in college, so I look forward to learning more about it here. I’d love to spend my career trying to better the world through engineering.
Find out more about our available scholarships and funding on the MACE website.
Want to meet more MACE staff, students and alumni? Check out the ‘Meet MACE’ section of the blog.
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