National Competition Success For Y13 DT student in the Tech Girl 2022 initiative
Report by Competition Winner Gabby Strimaityte (Y13)

Tech Girl is a national competition where you have the chance to share your ideas for a sustainable
technology change for schools that can be useful for students, teachers and the environment. The
leaders of the competition had to select 5 winners from 30 different schools in the UK and invite the
winners to the Tottenham Hotspur stadium in London.

My 3 main ideas for a sustainable school were to invest in alternative energy sources, such as solar
panels, wind turbines and a recycling machine for the school to reduce electricity/water costs and a
result in less CO2 emissions, a cleaner environment and unlimited electricity. I then submitted my
ideas through the Techgirl Hottopics website and eventually received an email telling me I had won
and therefore was invited to London.

We arrived at the stadium where we were all given a tour, then escorted to the top floor into a
conference room to meet CIO’s of Techgirl as well as the hosts of the competition. I met the other 4
winning girls and we were taken to a separate room to do a ‘confidence session’ before our
interview later on. In the session we were taught by a professional speaker who had previously
tutored politicians such as Boris Johnson how to talk, stand and sit confidently. This helped later on
in the day. We did some role play in which we had to ask each other questions about our ideas as if
we were in a real interview.

After this food was served and we had a moment to meet our mentors. Every girl had a separate
mentor which discussed their ideas with them and how they can help schools. The ideas ranged from
going paper free to hearing aids. I further discussed my ideas with my mentor as well as a journalist
who joined us to also take notes of my ideas. Everyone was very friendly and I felt as if I was part of
the team already.

Lastly, we were taken into an interview room full of cameras and lights, where we were fitted with
microphones and greeted by the interviewer. We were handed the questions which we would be
asked in the interview so we could revise what to say confidently. We then started filming and the
interview lasted around 5-10 minutes.

After this we were applauded in the main conference room by all the gathered hosts and CIO’s then
we were presented with trophies and had pictures taken with our mentors and the other winners, as
well as being filmed throughout the whole day. My experience was amazing and an eye opening
event, it is the first event they have held and will be continuing to do so in future years. After my
experience I recommend that if you are interested in DT and sustainability that you apply next year.