Two Sixth Formers had the honour of quizzing one of the BBC’s best-known presenters, Mishal Husain, on Monday.
Dara Shonubi and JB van Pelt interviewed the award-winning broadcaster via Zoom as part of the Girls’ Schools Association (GSA)’s annual conference, being held virtually this year.
Mrs Husain is the main Sunday presenter of the BBC News at Ten and BBC Weekend News and one of the main presenters of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
She answered questions from Dara and JB on topics drawn from her new book, The Skills, in which she offers advice to women on succeeding in the workplace. Questions included those on social media, presentation skills and equality in the workplace.
The students were most struck by the advice Mrs Husain offered on confidence, in which she said that young people should not worry about a lack of confidence because it is a skill that you develop as you get more experienced.
Dara said afterwards: “Her perspective on confidence was very inspiring because it gives you hope that confidence is something you build and not something you are born with.”
JB added: “It was really great. She was really nice and her answers were really interesting; it was nice to hear that type of advice, it was really useful and good to hear someone else’s experience.”
We are now hoping to welcome Mrs Husain to Benenden at a future date to speak to a wider group of girls.