Valentina Gelsomini

Teaching is the most difficult thing that has ever happened to me. I never planned or even imagined it. I am actually a 'Monod trainer', as a friend called me, because I started out of 'chance and necessity'.

With a degree in aerospace engineering I had quite different plans, I imagined myself immersed in demanding research programmes or travelling through unexplored worlds. Moreover, I had earned my degree with a lot of hard work and just as much satisfaction: we started out with 20 girls among 300 boys and graduated in five, despite the obstructionism of male professors, still convinced that certain subjects (STEAM, Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) are not 'women's stuff'. Yes, these things still happen, even though Italy's first female aerospace engineer, Amalia Ercoli Finzi, is now 81 years old. In military terms, one would say that the scientist Amalia has only won a battle, but not the war. The only thing I have in common with her is this: as a child, I too was attracted to aeroplanes. My brother used to leave Air Force magazines lying around the house and I, little by little, began to dream of space. Now my space is that of training, an 'infinite' space, because you learn all the time and everywhere.