The 2021 Virtual Catalyst Awards event on April 8th was a tremendous success — and it was such a joy to celebrate another year of Science Club for Girls with everyone! Thanks to your generous support, we had over 320 guests register for our virtual celebration and raised over $230,000. We are extremely grateful for the immense amount of support from our community— your community— so that girls and young women from all backgrounds have the tools and the support that they need to become the next generation of leaders in STEM.
At Catalyst, we recognized changemakers within our community and beyond. We heard from several long-time members of our community including Tiye, a current college sophomore at Howard University and mentor who has been involved with Science Club since 4th grade. As someone pursuing a degree in STEM, Tiye reflects on her time with SCFG, saying that, "I was able to help girls that looked like me be more confident in studies like STEM... [Science Club] is something that girls look forward to and something of consistency for their whole lives, I can definitely attest to that."
Angell, a current Junior Mentor and senior in high school who has been involved with Science Club since kindergarten, shared how participating in our programs since she was a young girl has influenced her path towards a career in STEM. When she found out that she could be a Junior Mentor with Science Club, she "started to do it right away" because she "remember[s] growing up and [never seeing] anyone that's an astronaut or a famous scientist where [she's] from." Maria, Angell’s mom and a dedicated member of our community, discussed how Science Club has impacted her life through Angell: "I truly believe that Science Club opened [my daughter's] path... I would love to see Science Club for Girls continue but also expand, not only in Massachusetts but all over... this is such a wonderful program!"
The Catalyst Awards event was hosted by Karen Holmes Ward, Host of CityLine. We also heard from Vice Mayor of Cambridge Alanna Mallon, a Science Club mom. When discussing the impact of Science Club on her daughter, she shared that, "STEM as a career, as a field, is really dominated by men, and ... [my daughter] could go to Science Club and have these hands-on [STEM] experiences with other girls who could help lift her up and support her and she could do the same." Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts Karyn Polito also spoke on the importance of introducing STEM to girls at a young age: "We need to engage girls [in STEM] and make it as exciting as possible for young girls to feel the spark and the excitement and literally see themselves in STEM careers."
Additionally, we were inspired by the words of our trailblazing Catalyst Awardees: Beth Chandler, CEO of YW Boston, and Rana el Kaliouby, CEO and Co-Founder of Affectiva. We were empowered by the wisdom that they shared and are grateful for the work that they do to uplift women of all backgrounds in STEM.
Thank you to our generous sponsors for making the 2021 Catalyst Awards possible: Comcast, Latham & Watkins, Foundation Medicine, Dell Technologies, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Hologic, Verizon, Exceedance, Sanofi Genzyme, Pfizer, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, H3 Biomedicine, Proskauer, Softworld, Takeda, TCR2 Therapeutics, Workhuman, New England BioLabs, Pegasystems, Roux Associates, and Simply Business.
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