We want to express our gratitude to Fiona Hill for including Science Club for Girls in her recent memoir, “There is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the 21st Century,” in which she recounts her background growing up in lower socioeconomic circumstances in Northern England and presents a call to action to invest in the untapped potential existing in our underrepresented communities in the U.S.
She discusses the ways Science Club for Girls (SCFG) is doing essential work by reducing barriers and creating opportunities and equal access for girls and young women from these communities. She also highlights the ways SCFG helps girls and women develop the relationships, networks, and cultural capital so essential to success.
This network-building happens for our participants in the relationships they develop, often over many years, with their mentors in the Science Clubs. It also happens for our community of more than 80 women-in-STEM mentors who create a strong support system and career support network for one another.
An excerpt from the book reads:
[...] Science Club for Girls had been created specifically to address the previous absence of girls from underrepresented communities in university science courses and careers. The intent of the program was to increase accessibility and make what once seemed extraordinary the “new ordinary.” It ought to be normal for every group in the United States to see people like themselves at college or in any profession.
Fiona Hill is a British-American foreign affairs specialist and academic. She is a former official at the U.S. National Security Council specializing in Russian and European affairs. She was awarded her Ph.D. in history from Harvard University, and currently serves as a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission.
"There is Nothing for You Here," is available on Amazon or anywhere books are sold.