Science Club for Girls was recently featured on a brand new podcast produced by Harvard Undergraduate Women in Business. The podcast host Hanna Johnson interviewed Keilina Tita Monteiro Do Canto (SCFG Mentor), Tamar (Junior Mentor), and Abraham Ahumada (Board Member) for a great discussion on SCFG’s mission, programs, and impact.
During the interview Tamar—who, in her role as a high school-aged Junior Mentor, serves as a guide and role model for younger girls—expressed: “I love the community at Science Club for Girls. At school or anywhere else, if someone said they wanted to be a doctor or study biomechanics a lot of people would look at them like they’re crazy, but at Science Club for Girls anything is possible. The girls there just uplift you and support you.”
When asked what she loves most about SCFG, Keilina—a college-aged Mentor from our Harvard Mentor Chapter who teaches and guides girls in SCFG’s weekly Science Clubs—shared: “Because there isn’t so much representation of girls—especially Black girls—who want to go into science, having that, having role models who look like you, who can guide you and help you when you feel down, is something that Science Club for Girls offers for so many young girls. Fostering that sort of environment from a very young age can help stop that feeling of, “oh, I’m not good enough to be a scientist because I don’t see anyone who looks like me in the field.”
Speaking of his role on the Board of Directors, Abe said: “I love knowing that the work I do as a board member is resulting in something so tangible…all the testimonials that we hear from the girls in the programs, whether they are Junior Mentors or whether they’re still students [in the Science Clubs]...it’s incredible.” He went on to discuss how critical it is to get girls interested in STEM at a young age, adding: “I think a lot of organizations around here [in the Greater Boston area] are starting to recognize that if you want to make these intentional decisions to hire diverse teams—to hire more women into STEM fields and STEM careers—that you have to start early. And Science Club for Girls is here to start that pipeline early.”
Clearly it was a rich and insightful conversation, and contained so much more gold than we could share here! Click here to listen to the full interview on Spotify (no account needed).