Below are some opportunities to participate in a conference run by Girls Advancing in STEM (GAINS) that will be occurring this November. Roles would be to guide facility/lab tours and/or give short talks to high school students.
This could be a great way to practice discussing your research to a new audience and workshop any upcoming talks you might have. Details are below.
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The GAINS Network is a virtual community connecting girls and women with a passion for STEM subjects to support, encourage, teach and inspire one another. We serve female-identifying and non-binary young adults interested in STEM by connecting them with female leaders in STEM-related fields. We provide role models, virtual mentors, and networking opportunities for our students at various stages of their education or career.
The annual GAINS Conference brings together high school students from member schools, local public, and private schools to explore STEM career options, connect with each other, and hear from women working in STEM-related fields. We have already received interest at the University of Chicago, including from Dean Melina Hale! We look forward to building an exciting day of STEM career exploration.
Conference Goals:
- Connect our high school students interested in STEM with female and non-binary peers and role models.
- Provide students access to information about the variety of STEM careers through interactions with STEM professionals, undergraduates, and graduate students.
- Expose students to STEM-focused research being led by women and non-binary individuals through workshops, tours, and technical talks.
GAINS Conference Volunteer Opportunities
The GAINS Conference would not be a success without the help of many volunteers at our hosting institution! If you, your postdoctoral students, or graduate students would like to offer a bit of their time, please consider one of the opportunities below.
Thursday November 9th
Lead a tour (1-2pm)
- A tour may mean incorporate a walking tour or more of lean more toward a workshop session
- Tours (45-60 minutes long) typically include a walking tour of the space meant to expose students to your work environment while engaging them in conversation about your work or the work being done
- Students particularly enjoy engaging in activities that engage them with the work done in the space. Think: donning suits to enter a clean room, DNA extraction in a biology lab, putting on sensors to examine their own gait in a biomechanics lab.
- You can present the workshop once or in tandem to two different student groups on Thursday and Friday!
Be part of our career mixer (3:00 pm – 4:30 pm)
The career mixer will feature small group discussions about your STEM career and your path to your current position.
- volunteers will sit at a table and every 6 minutes a new group of students will sit with you to discuss your career. We will provide questions to get discussion started!
- there will be time at the end to reconnect and catch up on discussions that were cut short and, of course, coffee and snacks.
Friday November 10th
Lead a tour (1-2pm)
- A tour may mean incorporate a walking tour or more of lean more toward a workshop session
- Tours (45-60 minutes long) typically include a walking tour of the space meant to expose students to your work environment while engaging them in conversation about your work or the work being done
- Students particularly enjoy engaging in activities that engage them with the work done in the space. Think: donning suits to enter a clean room, DNA extraction in a biology lab, putting on sensors to examine their own gait in a biomechanics lab.
- You can present the workshop once or in tandem to two different student groups on Thursday and Friday!
Present a technical talk (2 sessions: 10:00 am – 10:25 am, 10:40 am – 11:05 am)
- A quick and easy way to help out! Great for graduate students who want to workshop their talks!
- A technical talk is a 25-minute talk about your work geared towards motivated high school students. These are small group sessions (~10-15 students) that will allow for interaction between the presenter and students.
- Participants can offer their talk twice between 10:00 and 11:00 am
You can register for any of the above opportunities