On Thursday 13 February, the LVI attended the 2025 Inspiring Futures Conference and listened to a wide variety of talented speakers, some of whom are Calne Alumnae, about their professional journeys.

This year our panel included Claire Downey (Aerospace), Osarhieme Giwa-Osagie (Law), Octavia Hirst (Interior Design & Media), Emily Potter (British Army Recruitment), Tessa Renouf (Nursing & Healthcare Research), Harriet Shearcroft (Veterinary Medicine), Iona Westwood (Finance) and Clem Wood (Digital Marketing) who all enjoyed meeting the girls. 

Here, Liv and Eve (both LVI) report on their experience of the day:

'We had the privilege of hearing from eight incredibly interesting speakers from a wide range of careers. The day taught us a lot, from the importance of seizing EVERY opportunity presented to you throughout both your life and career to the importance of teamwork within a workspace and the wider world.

We spoke to Clare Downey about her job, which was aerospace engineering, it was fascinating to learn about and she told us lots about her area of work and spoke of how her job had led her to be able to travel all over the world by seizing opportunities that came her way, even ones that came out of a bad situation.

This day really helped us to properly start to think about different paths that we might choose to go down later in life. A lot of the speakers had previously been pupils at Calne and it was lovely to hear about some of their memories of the school too. Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed the day and feel as though we have taken a lot from it, and now have a platform to start thinking about our own future.'

Ada and Ariella also shared:
'The Inspiring Futures Conference was very informative and gave us a great insight into life in the corporate world. We enjoyed talking to the different panel members and learning about their careers and any valuable tips they have for us moving forward. The key takeaway from this was that you do not have to know what you want to do in the future now and that there is always room for change no matter your age.  

We also had the pleasure of chatting with Iona Westwood whom we hosted. We were able to learn about her life and her experience at St Mary's Calne, and, most notably, she taught us the importance of picking the right university, making sure to continue doing what you love, and to follow your passions.'