Coping with Covid

Coping with Covid Inspirational stories from our Alumnae It’s been a tough time for our alumnae, especially those at university and taking their first tentative steps into the working world. But Notre Dame girls are known for their resilience and determination, as these stories show... 2021 Sophie Bond Occupational Therapist After qualifying as an Occupational Therapist in 2019, Sophie, 27, has taken a role at an Acute NHS Foundation Trust in Chertsey. The pandemic has seen a real shift in the way she works and the type of patients she is dealing with. Says Sophie: “My role is to help rehabilitate patients after long periods of illness due to Covid or trauma. It’s hugely rewarding when you know you’re helping a patient regain their quality of life.” Here (right) she is trialling a Tilt Table – used to slowly return a patient to an upright position when they have been lying flat for a long time. With things returning to ‘normal’ she is now pursuing a role as a Neuro Specialist Occupational Therapist, focusing on stroke recovery. Maryam Grace (Sanjoori) Actress and Director It was a case of the show must go online when alumna and professional actress Maryam Sanjoori was cast as Macbeth in one of the first-ever full-length plays to be performed entirely on Zoom. Maryam, whose stage name is Maryam Grace, stepped into a world of swords made of tinfoil, shipwrecks conjured up in bathtubs and unscheduled ‘walk ons’ by family pets when she joined The Show Must Go Online, a new theatre company dedicated to the creation of live-streamed, global Shakespeare performances in response to the pandemic. And she was so successful that she was nominated for an award as Best Leading Actor in a Tragedy for her performance as Macbeth. Featured on BBC Newsnight, in The Guardian, and on LBC radio, TSMGO was started in March 2020 by actor Robert Myles who, seeing the impact of Covid-19 on his fellow creatives, set about mounting the entire Shakespearean canon in chronological order, live-streaming a play a week on YouTube. Maryam, who was Deputy Head Girl at Notre Dame before heading to the University of Birmingham to study English and Drama in 2010, made her debut as the Earl of Warwick in Henry VI in June 2020, and played the lead role in Macbeth in October. She’s also performed in four other Shakespeare plays for the company. “It was amazing to be part of a professional performance on Zoom,” says Maryam. It really felt as if we were doing a proper show, even though we were all in our own living rooms. Each actor was responsible for making their own props and costumes, so we had to be really creative. And there were quite a few moments when our pets got involved – even if they weren’t meant to!” Maryam is convinced that digital theatre will carry on, even when real theatres re-open. “It’s a whole new medium and provides both global access to the theatre and a much- needed additional source of income for those in the creative industries,” she says. Alumnae Update Francesca Edwards Commercial Airline Pilot and Covid Vaccinator Qualifying as a commercial airline pilot in the midst of the worst crisis in aviation history wasn’t what Francesca Edwards anticipated when she started training four years ago – but with optimism returning to the travel industry, she’ll soon be returning to the skies as soon as EasyJet gives her the nod. While she waits, she’s trained as a Covid vaccinator – the first lay person to do so at the East Elmbridge Vaccination Centre in Thames Ditton – and is now training new vaccinators. Francesca completed her commercial pilot training in March 2021 with three weeks in the Airbus A320 Flight Simulator at Gatwick and is now in a ‘hold pool’ for the Jenny Griffiths MBE airline. As soon as they need her, she’ll be back into the Founder and CEO, Snap Vision simulator to complete her ‘type rating’ before taking Covid caused a crisis on the High Street – so Alumna Jenny Griffiths Jenny, whose client list already features an impressive roster her place in the cockpit for a real flight. “It’s hard to MBE threw UK fashion retailers a lifeline by offering her award-winning of well-known brands, made her generous offer with no strings know when that might be, so in the meantime I’m visual search technology for free. The software enables shoppers to attached, offering to absorb the cost of running the service and keeping busy working for a reinsurance company and search for items using photographs rather than words and earned providing her team to help retailers integrate the technology into spend my weekends and spare time at the Vaccination Jenny an MBE for services to digital innovation at the tender age of 27. their websites. She continued: “What’s in it for me is the same as Centre,” she says. Says Jenny: “There’s never been a more important time to offer the what’s in it for the retailers – a chance for the industry we both love Francesca, who has vaccinated hundreds of patients best possible web and mobile experience, but budgets have never to survive a period unlike anything we have known before.” in the last few months, including her own father, says: been tighter. Visual search is the number one requested feature of a To find out more about Jenny’s industry-leading digital marketing “It’s an incredibly rewarding, fast-paced job and is most millennial audience, powering a 30% interest in conversion rates and technology, go to hiips://www.snap.vision/solutions certainly keeping me motivated while I wait to get back a 10% uplift in basket size.” into the skies. I’m just glad to be doing my bit!” Emilia Roberts Sophie Plummer National Account Executive, Artist, Performer and Composer Dyson Technology Anyone who remembers when Sophie was a student at Notre Dame will recall Marketing and Management graduate her outstanding musical talent. Not only was she a gifted singer, she also played Emilia Roberts, 22, has spent the the drums, piano and many other instruments. So it is not surprising to hear first six months of her career with of her biggest gig to date, a sell-out date at London’s Jazz Café performing Wiltshire-based Dyson Technology Massive Attack’s Blue Lines, along with her own original content. The June 1st working mainly from her kitchen table gig was a career-defining moment for 23-year-old Sophie – now known by her – but that hasn’t stopped her making professional name of Plumm – who has been pursuing a music career for as long an impressive contribution to the as she can remember. company’s latest marketing campaign. From Notre Dame, she went on to the world-famous Brit School – whose Now on her second rotation alumnae includes Adele and Jessie J – before enrolling at the School of Oriental of Dyson’s European commercial and African Studies in London, graduating with a degree in Ethnomusicology graduate scheme, Emilia is focusing in 2018. The course focused on the musical traditions of Asia, Africa and the on digital marketing in the UK and Italy Middle East and Sophie, who has a keen interest in all things percussion, chose and is currently looking after marketing to specialise in North Indian music. and sales for the Argos account. She Plumm describes her musical style, which mixes different musical genres, as says: “My biggest achievement so far has been the launch of our new purifier ‘moody, eclectic and improvisional’ and takes her inspiration from the likes of range. Working entirely virtually and liaising with brand, creative and logistics Nina Simone, Led Zeppelin and Janis Joplin. She quickly made her mark on the teams, I had to plan the campaign, get all the information over to Argos and then London jazz scene in 2019 and early 2020 with her music being championed by on launch day ensure that everything was live and working perfectly. It was really Radio 1 DJs Huw Stephens and Giles Peterson, and was also invited to the BBC 1 rewarding, especially when my manager made a special point of congratulating Extra music studios to record live with the likes of Moses Boyd, the drummer and me on my contribution.” composer whose Dark Matter album was nominated for the 2020 Mercury Prize. Despite the logistical challenges, Emilia was able to build a close online bond During lockdown, Sophie retreated to her music studio and spent most of with her team and was delighted when the office re-opened recently and they 2020 composing a new one-woman show, in which she explores the creative could all meet in person: “It’s made such a difference to our communication with potential of ‘looping’ – the technique of layering vocals used to such great effect each other. I didn’t expect to start my career at the kitchen table – but despite the by music megastar Ed Sheeran. Now, she feels she is becoming the musician challenges, I really feel part of the team now and am excited to see what else I can she “wants to be”, is about to release a new single and is ready to take her career achieve in this role.” to the next level – having smashed it at that long-delayed date at the Jazz Café. Alumnae Update Melanie Lynch-Staunton information to work with. Says Melanie: “Whether we are gathering Policy Adviser, HM Treasury information for Parliamentary questions or putting together data for History graduate Minister submissions, there’s a lot of research involved.

Load more