Jessica Gagen made history in 2022 when she became the first redhead woman in history to be crowned Miss England in the annual beauty contest.
Aside from her exploits in the fashion and modelling world, Jess has the distinction of having a passion for STEM, receiving a BEng in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Liverpool in 2023. Encouraged into STEM from an early age by her toolmaker father, Jess was initially reluctant to pursue this route due to the perception of it being a male-dominated world, something that she’s keen to use her newfound platform to dispel.
In September 2023, Morson hosted its inaugural STEM Changemakers Summit at the Morson Maker Space at the University of Salford. A keynote speaker at the event, Jess sat down with PathFinders to discuss the story of her life, her career, her aspirations for the future, how she’s using her platform during the Miss World contest in December to inspire and encourage girls into STEM, and much more.
“I was very much into my STEM subjects at school and I picked STEM A-levels as well, but I was very conflicted as to what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a little bit of everything and potentially I could say I still fit within that category now. But my interest in engineering only really came to surface when I left school.
So when I was 19 or 20 I thought about different pathways and opportunities and my background before that had been in fashion modelling.
So I identified what I liked about that industry, being the variety and what subjects would encompass that and engineering was what I picked.
I was told from a young age that I would be good in engineering by my dad. My dad was a tool maker by trade so he always used to say ‘Jess you would be a good engineer’. It was years down the line until I was interested, I always had an interest in aerospace because he used to take me to airshows so every year I’d go to Southport airshow.
It later down the line when I decided I needed to do a subject which is going to give me a lot of different options. Which was going to be interesting, challenging, have a lot of variety and tick the same box as modelling, so, essentially working with different people every day on different projects and, and so aerospace engineering was subject to go for.
I was scouted for the Miss Lancashire competition. I was very apprehensive to begin with because I didn’t really know what the contest stood for and there was a lot of stereotypes surrounding it, which I hadn’t been educated about.
And when I got to learn that the contest was all about empowering women and standing up for a cause that, you’re genuinely passionate about.
I realised I could use that platform for change and I could potentially take that regionally or nationally. Now luckily enough because I’ve now won the national contest, I can take this internationally. I’ve got a platform where I can speak about engineering to young girls and diminish stereotypes surrounding the idea that femininity and engineering are mutually exclusive.
Jess Gagen on inspiring girls into STEM.
So that’s why I went back to then win the Miss England competition. That’s what it was about because I came second in my first year and I thought, I need to do this.
I was picked on when I was at school for having red hair. So then to win a national contest, which historically was based on beauty – not so much anymore but everybody connects those two ideas – it really was a fantastic moment because I really felt it resonated within the redhead community.
I had so many messages of support and so many messages from parents, and children who told me that they had been through the same things, which I’d gone through. So to be able to stand up and, represent us on a world stage. I mean, at the moment, unless they crown any new girls, I’m the only redhead that’s going to be in the Miss World contest this year so I am so immensely proud to get to represent England.
Morson Changemakers STEM Summit 2023 – SEE Building, Maker Space, University of Salford
I think it’s really important to encourage young people into STEM careers because STEM is the future. Engineering is the backbone, I believe, of the country, and typically it takes a village. A lot of people, assume for me an aerospace engineer, oh, she builds aircraft. Although that might be the case in some instances, typically it’s an umbrella over a lot of different fields. So whether that’s chemistry, biology, obviously different types of science being physics, then subsections of those subjects as well. I mean we’re talking thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, material science. There are so many avenues to go down in engineering and I think it’s really important, even not focusing on a job profile as such but focusing on the skills that our young people can gain through studying STEM because they can lead them into many different avenues in different industries as a whole as well.
So my plan at the moment, is I’m going to put absolutely everything into my STEM campaign leading up to the Miss World final, which is going to be in December this year. I’ll be competing to potentially be the first aerospace engineer to win Miss World, so that would be really cool.
If was able to gain that platform because I think that would be fantastic for the world of STEM because it really would diminish stereotypes surrounding both STEM as an industry and also the beauty pageant industry. So I’m really hoping I can combine them both. But then aside from that, obviously there’s every chance that I won’t win that contest. And my passion is still within STEM.
I still plan to carry on working with schools, going into schools, advertising opportunities in STEM and different careers. And then because of my career, I have a very potentially ambitious dream. I’d love to work in TV and educate young kids about engineering through TV.
Aside from that, I’m interested in working in new technology, so we’ll see where that leads.”
Find out more about the Morson Changemakers STEM Summit here, andvisit our PathFinders hub for more inspirational stories.
Luke Ambler is the founder of the men’s suicide prevention charity ANDYSMANCLUB. They offer free-to-attend, peer-to-peer support groups across the United Kingdom and online, with the aim of ending the stigma surrounding men’s mental health.
For PathFinders, we spoke to Luke about the family tragedy that spurred him into action to set up Andy’s Man Club. From an idea borne out of grief, the club now has over 120 free support groups across the country, serving almost 3,000 men a week through 900+ volunteers.
Has mental health always been important to you?
My own personal journey with mental health started way before ANDYSMANCLUB. It started when my eight years old. Without going into a sob story, my parents separated, quite a normal thing to do for a lot of people. But my way of dealing with it was comfort eating and I put on a lot of weight and got big, had a bit of a hard time at school for it. I found rugby which was my crutch, a place where I could go and express myself.
Being a big kid in rugby helps. Mom ends up having a car crash which led to some brain damage, and she developed a mental illness, non-epileptic attack disorder which basically means mum will drop, she’ll fall, you name it, she’s done it.
They moved my mum to where she lives now in a little disabled bungalow., because otherwise she could fall down the stairs and die.
And a result of her illness she developed quite poor mental health, so she developed anxiety where she won’t leave her house for four years at one point just won’t leave on leave for the fear of people judging her having these falls, because it was so stigmatised then, even more so than it is now. That was difficult and the bouts of depression out of that. It was hard to manage and learn and understand it. As a young man, I probably didn’t understand or maybe didn’t believe it.
How did you come to found ANDYSMANCLUB?
On 5th April 2016, my brother-in-law, my partner’s little brother, died by suicide and it came completely out of the blue. Just to give you a backstory, we were out on the Sunday laughing and joking, talking about buying a house. He’d just got promoted at work or they were looking at a promotion at work, everything was going well in his life from what he’d had in the past, he’d completely changed his life around.
On the Sunday morning, he gets up to play football and then he goes to the Palladium with my missus, his daughter and the kids.
And then that night I meet him as I usually would, all of us around my mother in laws for Sunday dinner and then next morning he gets up, goes to work and then doesn’t come home that night. Next morning my mother-in-law gets a knock on the door by a policeman, to say that they’d found her son dead. I’m about to go to a rugby camp with my little boy Alfie, who was so tight with his uncle Andy.
My phone rang, it was my mother-in-law. I said hello and she just said, our Andrew’s dead. And I said, I’m on my way. I dropped Alfie off and shot up to the house. And I remember like it was yesterday, the atmosphere you could have cut with a knife.
Later I had to tell Alfie that his uncle Andy had gone up to heaven, and to hear the scream let out by a six-year-old boy will live with me forever. It absolutely crippled me and was the catalyst for this movement. No family should have to go through what this family’s going through.
Watch the video above to hear the full exclusive interview.
ANDYSMANCLUB has over 120 free support groups nationwide, running every Monday from 7PM except bank holidays. In these groups, men can open up about the storms affecting their lives in a safe, judgement-free and non-clinical environment. Our clubs are designed to be free of pressure, there is no obligation for men to speak, they can simply listen if they wish. Click here to learn more.
Hussain Zadran is an Aeronautical Engineering student at the University of Salford.
For PathFinders, we speak to Hussain about his inspiring story, overcoming his delayed start to education and working hard to forge a successful career in engineering. We spoke to him at Silverstone Circuit during the IMechE Formula Student championship, where he was helping the Salford Racing team build their custom racing car for the event.
“I never went to school, I couldn’t afford it. The people who had money, they could afford it. Sometimes we didn’t even have a house, no food, no light. Coming from a very, very poor background. I came to this country about Year 7ish. It was very difficult. But that motivated me to go out and study because I just knew that was the way out for me, to be able to go out and show the world. I needed to fight my war through speaking and be able to defend myself with speech.
I started studying hard every single day. I was studying, learning English. I passed my GCSE’s, messed up on science a little bit, but it was fine. It didn’t make a major impact.
I got into Kingston College. I started studying level three manufacturing engineering. It was an extended diploma, which was equivalent to three A levels, and I got the equivalent to three A*s. Every single day, seven days a week, I was studying more than 10 hours a day.
I was offered places for university. What I was offered to study at Loughborough for. For me it was a bit too far away. Salford was very convenient for me, and I’ve got family there as well.
My hope is that I stay doing this sort of thing [volunteering for Salford Racing] on the side looking for placements just to make sure I get my experience and knowledge built up. I believe anything is possible there. Things in life have taught me that if I can come from such a poor, war-torn country to the UK, now I’m studying engineering, then anything is possible.”
I want to finish my degree with a Master’s looking to possibly go and get my B license, which is the aircraft technician, and then my C license. To be B licensed is a couple of years and I think C is well over ten years. Then you can become a chartered engineer.
That’s just plan A. Plan B would be go into the Navy, go in as an officer, come out and then you can do anything you like. So that’s sort of the plan I go for. Engineering-wise, I believe I want to stay in the industry as a technician, working physically, possibly for about five, eight years.”
Watch the video above to hear the full exclusive interview.
The Morson STEM Foundation aims to support people from all backgrounds explore and pursue pathways into engineering-related careers. With the immense demand for STEM skills un the UK, Morson Group is investing in education and aspiration, working hard to change lives and ensure a sustainable future for the industry. Find out more about the Morson STEM Foundation here.
Students from the University of Salford enjoyed a challenging, demanding and bittersweet weekend at the home of UK racing, Silverstone, in July while taking part in the IMechE Formula Student competition with their custom-designed racing car.
Europe’s most established educational engineering competition, Formula Student, sees university teams from all over the world produce a prototype for a single-seat race car, which is put through its paces on the Silverstone Circuit to discern a winner. This year, more than 130 teams entered for the competition, which was celebrating its 25th year.
Watch the story of their weekend below:
The Salford Racing team, comprising students from a variety of disciplines, had planned, designed, and built its car from the University’s Maker Space, a state-of-the-art facility funded by the Morson Group, which has also invested £10K to sponsor the car, and provided additional industry training. While allowing for the practical, real-world development of skills and techniques that are invaluable for students of all disciplines, the Salford Racing project exists separately from team members’ curriculums, with the project being completed out-of-hours on a voluntary basis.
The Maker Space is part of the Morson Group’s Changemakers programme, which builds on the company’s extensive efforts – in partnership with the University of Salford, Into University and other stakeholders – to help young people, particularly those from disadvantaged, underrepresented or marginalised backgrounds, to develop the confidence and technical skills to build a career in STEM.
Ollie Parsons, an aeronautical engineering graduate who took on the role of Team Principal for the end of the 2021 season through 2022, talks about the important skills required to make the project work:
“This is a team which is expected to perform as working professionals, to create a car in their own time alongside their studies and do it off their own back. One thing I learned was that you’ve got to motivate people so showing the reward at the end which is Silverstone and the whole design experience. A big thing for me was understanding people, different ways of working.
There was a lot of change between 2021 and 2022. Operating principles within the team and morale boosting, and I hope since then the team have built on that and been able to plan for contingency and making sure that if there’s anything dropping out people coming up to exams getting stressed that they can forecast that and make sure resource is covered.
Morson were particularly useful in allowing students to go on critical courses like welding, fabrication, supporting us in buying beter parts. It makes a massive difference, and the student experience is improved because of it. It gives you that additional edge on other graduates. Aside from the monetary contribution, having the professional workspaces with engineers’ advice, it’s invaluable.”
The 2023 event at Silverstone
The Salford Racing 2023 team arrived at Silverstone on the Thursday of the event and was immediately up against it, with the engineers identifying an issue which required a complete disassembly and rebuild of the engine. As the team were against the clock to make it to scrutineering the following day, along with the rest of the tests the teams must go through ahead of Sunday’s running, several of the group opted to stay up all night.
Hussain Zadran, aeronautical engineering student who designed the side panelling, utilising the water jet facilities at the Morson Maker Space, describes the situation and his reasons for joining the Salford Racing team:
“We had to rebuild it several times but we finally realised that it was something to do with the bearing inside, so we had to strip it up, take the bearing out and then rebuild.
The thing that attracted me to the project started all the way back when I came to the country. Originally from Afghanistan, at 13 I had to learn English from scratch and I’ve always been a person that wants to develop their skills further. I’m foundation year at the moment and I thought I’d join and there’s a lot more to learn.”
The team managed to complete the build on Friday afternoon, making it to scrutineering. Several issues were identified on the car, including lock wires on the throttle cable and clutch, which needed to be fixed before the team could make it through to the following stages. Following passing scrutineering and the tilt test, the team fell short at the noise test. Unfortunately, the engine issues that the team had had on the Thursday and Friday had meant that the car hadn’t been started, and the team was unable to do so at the noise test due to a battery issue. Frustratingly for the team, this meant they ran out of time to complete the tests and that they were unable to take part in the running events on the Sunday despite having a car that the stewards agreed was ready to go.
Nonetheless, it was a weekend of hard work, lessons and inspiration for the team as they look ahead towards making improvements for the 2024 event.
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Boxing trainer Joe Gallagher is an instantly recognisable face in the corner of the ring. A veteran of some 60 amateur fights himself, the young prospect turned his attention to training in the early 1990s, and has since gone on to become incredibly successful, training the likes of the Smith Brothers, Anthony Crolla, Scott Quigg, Natasha Jonas and more to world title successes, many while benefitting from sponsorship from Morson along their journeys.
With Joe’s current stable of fighters now moving back from Bolton to where it all began for Joe, Phil Martin’s Champs Camp in Moss Side, Manchester, we caught up with Joe to reflect on his career journey. He talks openly to PathFinders about his parents’ influence on him, the years of struggling to balance his amateur training with his day job and the strain that it put on him, the golden years of his stable and much more.
What was your earliest memory of boxing?
I think like everyone’s when they were growing up then in that era was watching Muhammad Ali, with my dad. He was huge boxing fan. And Ali because he was so popular, world heavyweight champion and everything, as a child just sat there watching. Then all the other fighters like John Conteh from the UK at the time, he was world champion.
At the time I must have been around eight or nine. I was going mixed martial arts and karate. And then I got to around age ten I was, I was third grade, you know, the brown one more before you go into a black belt and which was in the playground. And someone mentioned that there’d been a boxing gym opening up but wasn’t sure for them. So I told my dad I’d go to the boxing gym.
So I went down and the person whose gym it was that was open was Jimmy Egan. So that’s more known now as Jimmy Egan’s Boxing Gym and wasn’t sure, but then it was known it was in short form and I went there and I stuck with it and I said, the rest is history.
Is it fair to say that your dad and Jimmy Egan were the two biggest influences and biggest role models in your life growing up?
And mum. Yeah, she no, she worked very hard and it wasn’t much money in the house. My dad was always working hard out on the roads and was holding down two or three jobs down at the time. I was the oldest of five and four sisters.
I did want to turn professional at one point, as every fighter does. But my dad was worried that there was no money in it. So, he said, you’re going to come out on the road to me and that’s it going to need to get a proper job. You’re only going to make money if you’re like Muhammad Ali, the equivalent of that generation. So those were the type of conversations or just for right, okay, then. And that was that’s why I didn’t turn professional, and I went into coaching then.
Watch the video above to hear the full exclusive interview.
Now retired and working to train the next generation of fighters, including his brother Will, Joe Gallagher-trained world champion boxer Anthony Crolla speaks openly to PathFinders about his incredible career, both in and out of the ring, and what his hopes are for the future. Click here to hear his story
