On Monday, 8th July 2013, a group of PhD students from the University of Manchester visited Manchester Academy to work with our Year 10 pupils, as part of the University’s Elevator Pitch: Selling our Science campaign with local Manchester secondary schools.
The pitch was designed specifically to inform Year 9 and Year 10 school children about the PhD degree and to showcase some of the research being done by PhD students in the Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences at the University of Manchester.
An elevator pitch is a focused and inspiring pitch designed to grab the attention of the listener in the time it takes for an elevator to ride from the top of a building to the bottom.
A great pitch should enthuse the listener to find out more about the topic presented. Something of which our visitors definitely did throughout the whole morning, leaving our students completely inspired about their futures after Post 16 study.
Manchester Academy students learnt about the many options open to them whilst at university and the pathways they can take while studying in Higher Education.
Postgraduate students from across the Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences talked about their experiences as PhD students. They subsequently 'sold their science' in a series of short 'Elevator Pitches' designed to showcase and highlight the importance of their research projects.
Post 'pitch' questioning allowed our students in Year 10 that are interested in medicine and the human sciences to find out more about the ongoing research at the university.
X-factor like voting at the end of the event decided which student was allowed to stay in the elevator and promoted further discussion amongst the group, our students gave some very interesting opinions relating to the research our visiting PhD students have been completing.
Our thanks go to Ryan Blything, Aala Elkhani, Kathryn Steel, Eleanor Hinde, Farah El Mohtadi, Michael Lawless, Lynsey Warwick-Giles and Zahra Youssef Abdall at the University for organising and facilitating such an enjoyable event.
Take a look at some of the students in action and learn from their perspective what PhD study is all about!
Please visit the Elevator pitch: selling our science page by clicking here to see all the recorded elevator pitches!
The event was thoroughly enjoyable and was a huge success engaging the thoughts of our students throughout. The Enabling Employability Department will continue to work with the PhD students next academic year and we look forward to their next visit!
Aiden Lucas
Enterprise and Arts Specialism