Training as a STEM ambassador
In the first half of 2022, Paige participated in a 6 month training called the STEM ambassador program (STEMAP) run regularly at the University of Utah. This program involves a series of workshops and one-on-one meetings aimed at teaching scientists how to build relationships with their community and develop specific outreach activity with a community group. Training topics included how to reach out to community groups, learn about their needs, discuss shared interests, avoid jargon, and build targeted activities. For her outreach activity, she worked with Northwest Middle School and gave a hands-on presentation during their STEAM Day that including discussing her path to science, the field of genomics, and some of her research. More on STEMAP can be found here: https://stemap.org/
Paige participates in "Letters to a Pre-Scientist"
Throughout the school year, Paige wrote 4 letters to her 6th grade pen-pal in California. Each letter had a theme designated by Letters to a Pre-Scientist meant to build discussion around STEM careers including her path to STEM, her everyday activities, and obstacles she's overcome. The overall goal was to make STEM careers less intimidating to young students and to show them that anyone can become a scientist. Paige's pen-pal loved riding horses, the NFL, and learning about ancient human populations! More information about the program here: https://prescientist.org/
Paige and Helena present to youth-in-custody
Paige and Helena gave a virtual presentation to youth-in-custody at the Farmington Bay Youth Center in March 2021. They talked about their journey to becoming scientists, their research projects, and a general background in evolution and genomics. Through this presentation, they hoped to inspire the younger generation to have an interest in science. This outreach was through STEMCAP, an organization that facilitates engagement between scientists and youth-in-custody: https://www.stemcap.org/
Science Fair Judging
Helena served as a judge for the Salt Lake City School District Science and Engineering Fair Secondary Division Grades 7-12 over Zoom during the first week of February 2021. She was inspired by the scientific frontiers, including machine learning algorithms and wearable heart health monitors, that members of the younger generation of scientists are excitedly pursuing.
The lab encourages members to get involved in outreach activities. A list of opportunities in the areas can be found here:
https://stemap.org/university-of-utah-resources/
We will update here with lab members’ outreach activities!