The executive director of Puerto Rico Science (Sciencepr), Greetchen Díaz Muñozhe always dream of growing Triunfo seedsone of the flagship programs of the organization, outside of Puerto Rico. And on January 25, 10 years after having founded it, his desire to create seeds from leading girls in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stemin English) in other regions, the launch of the second triumph seed chapter in New Haven, Connecticut.
Known in English as “Seeds of Success-New Haven”, it is executed in collaboration with the Yale University. There, it is led by Carolina Machadoproject manager, and Giovanna Guerrero Medinaformer Executive Director of SciencePR and now senior advisor to the organization.
During the first event, 39 girls from sixth to eighth grade participated, who spent the day visiting scientific laboratories. Machado shared that girls, in addition, could ask professionals who work in these spaces and experiment with scientific instruments, such as microscopes.
Also, the young women attended panels in which they met women in Stem, their careers, as well as the difficulties they faced and how they were copent. They also participated in self -discovery and leadership workshops. Beyond exposing girls to various activities in Stem and giving mentors in those fields, one of the triumph seed objectives is to offer them tools to become leaders in their communities.
What will the program be like
In contrast to the chapter in Puerto Rico, which serves hundreds of girls every year and performs many of its activities virtually, for the New Haven section, most activities will be in front. This is because, according to Guerrero Medina, they will work with a much more limited geographical area, with approximately 30 schools.
Participants will have laboratories at their disposal, as well as other spaces at Yale University for activities, Machado reported.
Regarding the mentoring component, Machado said: “We have a superimportant resource, which is access to mentors who are women who study and/or work within Yale”.
Girls will have guides who are experts in issues such as astronomy, physics, medicine, medical sciences and engineering. Also, team projects can work, thus developing collaboration skills.
Spanish, English and Pastún
On the diversity of the group, Guerrero Medina stressed: “In New Haven schools, 30% of students are African -American and almost 40% are Hispanics. Among those Hispanics there are many backgrounds, but there is a fairly large community of Puerto Ricans. ”
In addition to attracting girls from these communities, the program seeks to recruit girls from low -socioeconomic homes, since, according to Guerrero Medina, sometimes, they do not have models to follow in relation to university studies.
In conversations with local teachers and educators, Machado and Guerrero Medina realized that they had to make the effort to include girls from countries in Middle Eastcreating materials in Stem in their language.
“There is a large population of immigrants from Afghanistan and teachers, especially, they said that, many times, these students do not feel included by language differences,” said Guerrero Medina.
Therefore, in collaboration with the Organization Integrated Services for Refugees and Immigrants (IRIS), They managed to translate educational materials from the A Pastún program, a language used by Afghas, Pakistani and Iranian.
80% of the participants of the first cohort are Latin, while the rest are made up of girls from other minority groups.
Your expectations
When asked what to wear triumphal seeds outside of Puerto Rico, Díaz Muñoz highlighted: “For me, it is a dream of fulfilled. I believe that the greatest meaning is that they have validated our model. We have been able to show that the educational model of triumph seeds works. It is a product that we have developed in Puerto Rico and that, now, is exported to USA“.
The triumph seed manager in Puerto Rico, Liz Hernández Matíashe agreed with Díaz Muñoz and added to be excited about the new expansion.
For his part, Machado declared that it is important to create a community so that girls know that they have support in their careers.
Guerrero Medina said: “We know that this program transforms lives. We see it on the faces of the girls, the confidence they show at the end of the program, in what the parents tell us about how girls have changed and, also, in the notes we receive from them when they are already in college or starting graduated school ”.
The author is a fellow in Scientific Communication of Science Puerto Rico (Sciencepr).