MIT Mentor Chapter take Junior Mentors to MIT

This fall, our Junior Mentors visited the MIT campus to see what life looks like inside one of the world's leading research universities. At Science Club for Girls, we're committed to giving our youth opportunities to grow, explore STEM careers, and connect with Mentors in the field. This visit did all three: our Junior Mentors heard directly from undergraduate and graduate STEM students about their paths, saw research in action inside real MIT labs, and got a feel for what a future in STEM could look like for them.

Leading the way was someone who knows SCFG from every angle: Sarah Soroca, a current SCFG Mentor and president of SCFG’s MIT chapter, who began her own Science Club journey in high school as a Junior Mentor. Her path from Junior Mentor to MIT student showed our current Junior Mentors just how far that journey can lead. As she guided the group across campus, Sarah shared her insights into the college application process and her experiences as an MIT student. She talked about the collaborative spirit in her classes, where students work through tough problems together rather than competing against one another, and about the chance to do scientific research as an undergraduate.

Sarah's stories came to life as the group explored campus and discovered that science at MIT happens well beyond the lecture hall. They stopped by the glass blowing lab, where art and science meet over a flame, and the robotics lab, where students design and build machines from the ground up.

To give our Junior Mentors a look at the next step in a STEM career, Sarah invited two graduate students, Abinitha and Teya, who shared their own perspectives and research journeys at MIT. Their stories offered a glimpse of where a passion for STEM can lead, and a reminder that every researcher started out asking questions, just like our Junior Mentors do in Science Club.

After hearing about STEM research, the Junior Mentors got to see it firsthand with a tour of the Suess Lab. Alex, a graduate student in the Suess Lab, walked the Junior Mentors through the lab's equipment, including instruments used to study the radioactive decay of cobalt. They saw molecules of table salt in solution, a familiar substance from our Chemistry curriculum studied in an unfamiliar way. They also explored the lab's safety setup, including an isolation glove box for handling sensitive materials, fume hoods that keep researchers safe from hazardous vapors, and drying ovens that remove water from laboratory glassware before experiments.

Our Junior Mentors are in the middle of their Chemistry semester, so seeing glove boxes, fume hoods, and chemical research in action brought their lessons to life in a whole new way.

What did our Junior Mentors take away from the visit? 

“Visiting MIT gave me a whole new perspective on college life. Seeing biology and chemistry majors working in the lab with all kinds of machines helped me picture what it would actually look like to major in STEM. I left feeling a lot more familiar with the area.” 

“I feel like I have a better understanding of what college at MIT could be like. I now have a better sense of what STEM looks like in college, what courses I can take and how I can bring my different interests into my studies. I also made new friends and connections with SCFG Junior Mentors and Mentors!”

Reflections like these are why we do this work: a single visit can shift the way young people see their futures. 

Thank you to Sarah, Abinitha, Teya, Alex and the Suess Lab for opening their doors and sharing their time. Experiences like this are at the heart of SCFG's mission: helping our Junior Mentors picture themselves in labs and lecture halls like MIT's, and we can't wait to see where their curiosity takes them next.