Student sponsorship from the EAG allowed me to participate in the EGU25 (European Geosciene Union) conference in Vienna. This was an important experience for me, as it allowed me the chance to improve my public speaking, and it gave me the chance to learn from more senior scientists and increase my confidence in my abilities and future. This experience was definitely a little overwhelming, with over 20,000 attendees, but it encouraged me to leave my shell and speak to more expert people in my field that I did not know, as well as meet other early career scientists. As someone who tends to be more introverted in bigger crowds, this was of huge importance for me to practice. Further, future prospects have greatly progressed, as I have been told about multiple PhD programs coming up that I would be very interested in applying to, and I now have personal connections with those running the programs.

In terms of my experience, it took the first day just walking around the event to get used to the layout and all. I did, however, stay in a lovely hostel nearby and was in the same room as another woman attending the event, which was great. That connection gave me comfort, as well as someone to eat lunch with! I was quite nervous to give an oral presentation on the fourth day of the event, so the first three were about 35% going to talks and 65% preparing my lecture and overthinking/over-practicing it. In the end, I said everything I wanted, stayed within the time limits, didn’t stutter, and answered all the questions asked. Then, at the end of that day, I got to go to a dinner with the people who were involved with my session, which was really fun. I think my favorite part of the event was the hour from 6pm to 7pm, where talks and posters finished, and everyone convened in different halls for free beers. I got to meet back up with those from my university and we discussed our days and what we got to learn.

What I would advise for students wanting to go to this event would be to check out the Early Career Scientists (ECS!) things. I didn’t realize the events that were for ‘ECS’ meant that and I missed some really cool ones. Secondly, don’t stress too much! It took me a couple days to feel less overwhelmed, but a good trick is to find a little corner outside every so often and just be by yourself. The EGU report that 56% of the abstracts presented this year in Vienna were identified as contributions from Early Career Scientists, so you are not alone!