Posted on: Wednesday 12 March 2025
Around 150 girls got the chance to quiz a panel of female leaders in media, business, engineering and education this week.
The event at Croesyceiliog School, in Cwmbran, on Tuesday was organised to mark International Women's Day on March 8.
The panel included Yeti Television creative director and former pupil Sian Price, Zoe Trigwell, CEO of Trigwell Cosmetics, and Naomi Jenkins, Design Manager at Morgan Sindall.
The panel discussed what inspired them to follow their career paths, how they've overcome self-doubt and what they were most proud of, before answering questions from the Year 7 to 11 pupils.
Among them was Head Girl Marcella Tomasulou, who said: "It was nice to see women from different backgrounds and hear who's inspired them. It's helped me with my career choices."
Year 8 pupil Poppy Takel added: "It was really nice to have women of all ages sitting together - I feel like the atmosphere was something only girls could understand."
Headteacher Natalie Richards, who was also a member of the panel, said: "One of our school values is ambition and we wanted to use International Women's Day to instil aspiration in our girls."
Cllr Joanne Gauden, Torfaen Council's Executive Member for Regeneration, Skills and Economy, who was part of the panel and is a school governor, said: "I was really happy to support this event and hopefully inspire the girls in the audience to use their voices to shout about the things and issues they feel passionately about."
The other members of the panel were Johanna Enzmann, Operations Learning and Development Lead at HWM Global, and Debbie Gliniary, a women's fitness specialist and owner of Mammau Ffit.
The girls in the audience were nominated to attend by teachers and heads of year.
After the event, the school's Croesycast podcast team interviewed several of the panel members for an edition to be shared with the rest of the school.
The event was arranged by Careers Wales and a celebration is also being planned to mark International Men's Day in November.