In late May, Science Club for Girls attended a wonderful event hosted by SCFG funder and
supporter Life Science Cares Boston. During the event, SCFG’s Executive Director, Dr. Bonnie Bertolaet, participated on a panel with fellow 2022 Life Science Cares grant recipients Sandra McCroom of Children’s Services of Roxbury and Dr. Jaykyri Simpson of Young Man with a Plan—moderated by Jo Viney, President and CEO of Seismic Therapeutics. The panel included a powerful discussion about "What it will take to make real change?" to end poverty in Greater Boston and achieve equity in education.
In response, Dr. Bertolaet articulated: “Real change means going to the root. And that means making a multi-year investment in a girl’s trajectory in STEM… I was trained as a drug discovery scientist, and I know that if we can invest 13 years in developing a drug, we can invest 13 years in developing a girl as a scientist.”
Dr. Bertolaet also shared: “If we want to increase representation in STEM we need to fundamentally change how we make STEM education and careers more accessible and attractive to the communities we want to invite in. What does that look like? At Science Club for Girls we offer free programs that are readily accessible by holding them at places where families naturally congregate, like libraries, schools, community centers, and also online. We present content that is hands-on, engaging, and fun and delivered by mentors who come from the same communities our girls do.”
Science Club for Girls is grateful for our partnership with Life Science Cares to engage the life sciences sector in transforming the face of STEM and build the pipeline for the future, diverse, skilled STEM workforce.
To watch the Impact Breakfast presentation, click the video image below. The panel begins at 28:00. You can hear Dr. Bertolaet’s full response to the question “What will it take?”(and hear her receive an ovation for that response!) at 40:20.