Marcelle McManus writes:
I embarked upon the Aurora experience with a bit of trepidation; being from Mechanical Engineering the prospect of being surrounded by women was daunting! But I am so glad I did it. The aurora experience was full of inspiration, frustration, and making friends. Longer term it has left me with a network of people I can share good and bad times with, a deeper knowledge of how academia and Bath works and how management and leadership skills can be found in unexpected places. My cohort travelled to Cardiff, and I was impressed by the variety and number of people there. Some of the speakers were truly inspirational and were willing to share all sorts of stories, experiences, challenges and solutions. One of the best parts of Aurora for me was the Action Learning set. I got to know my group very well; and we all had to take a problem or issue to discuss. Everyone really engaged in this process and the best bit was that we all stuck together over the next sessions and really followed up on progress. I got to see people in my set really progress - to promotion, overcoming particular problems at work, and dealing with some really tricky issues. I myself really developed as the year went on, and it hasn’t stopped. I had a fantastic mentor during the process and he really also helped me see how to change things here at the University and enable myself to overcome challenges ahead. And when I couldn’t do that myself he helped. Fantastic! Lots of us are now on Senate, I don’t think that would have happened without Aurora. I strongly advise anyone who is thinking about it to go; it’s not only challenging, it’s fun!
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