Francesca Manyonyi is a motivated student of Materials Science and Engineering at Imperial College London (BEng) under the Beacon University Scholarship. She hopes to apply the knowledge of science and manufacturing industries offered by her degree program towards informed policymaking in the energy sector. 

Francesca’s internship at electric vehicle battery company Gaussion exposed her to research on the viability of alternative battery technologies which do not incorporate carbon or cobalt. This allowed her to develop skills in scrutinising data and literature, as well as providing with insight into business operations in the climate and sustainable energy sector.  

Her prior internship with Energy Garden, in which she was involved in the logistics of the organisation’s tube station gardens and their solar installation projects, provided her with on-the-ground experience with the process of implementing sustainability-related policies. The internship also allowed her to further explore her interest in gardening and forestry, which begun when she founded the Nairobi-based non-profit organisation Rooting for the Planet.