Empowering the Future: Why Science Club for Girls is Great for Biotech

Sometimes we talk about building biotechs and sometimes we talk about the important issues surrounding biotech. In this episode, I got to interview two amazing women. Bonnie Bertolet and Ashley Cooper are with Science Club for Girls, which is an organization near and dear to my heart. And we get to talk about how this particular club can actually be an asset to biotech. From getting girls and gender expansive youth into stem, keeping them in stem, and providing valuable mentorship opportunities for employees in biotech, we really cover all the ways this club can impact your company if you're growing small biotech. So even if you're more interested in how you can grow your biotech right now, please listen to this episode because it's very impactful. We are losing women from STEM at an astonishing rate and this is one of the solutions. Welcome to building biotechs by Recredomics Consulting. We've helped over 90 biotech, life sciences and venture capital for firms strategize and hire thousands of employees to scale companies that impact human health. We speak with those at the forefront of growing biotechs to learn their tactics on building these companies from the ground up. I'm Karina Klingman, founder and principal at recredomics Consulting. Enjoy the show. I always like to start with a little bit of a background on my guests because people like to know how you got to where you are. So my stock question is what did you want to be when you were 7? What are you now and how did you get there? Why don't we start with you, Bonnie?

I was always very interested in math. I probably had my sights on something math related but did not know about the choices in science. That's where I started and was lucky to grow up in an academic university environment. Was around a lot of scientists, even though this was not something known in my family. I think my parents were frustrated scientists that had their own science trajectory truncated for whatever reason. Especially my mom. She was very math focused and did calculations in her head all the time and was a really good role model for that.

Ashley, what about you?

I think when I was seven, I was really drawn to storytelling and narrative as I still am now. And so I was really interested in acting and writing and I think I've been able to carry that into my future experiences that I had, especially in college and post graduation, but in a different way than I envisioned it initially. I still have a very deep love for theater, for journalism, for creative writing, but I've also found a deep love for science as well, and particularly through studying neuroscience, anthropology. During my undergraduate career, I was able to really see the intersection of those two fields and disciplines and practices and see how that interdisciplinarity can allow both to shine even more. And now I found myself continue to be able to pursue both writing and science through serving as a curriculum writer and evaluation manager at Science Club for Girls this past year.

Amazing. So I want to know what is Science Club for Girls? Can we outline that for our audience?

Happy to. So Science Club for Girls is also a way of life because we have sort of a continuum from kindergarten through 12th grade and then through our mentor core, which Ashley can share a lot about, runs from first years in college through to seasoned professionals in their 60s, 70s and 80s. So we talk about a community from ages 5 to 85 and science club for Girls how we really carry out our mission about fostering excitement, confidence and literacy in STEM for girls and gender expansive youth from underrepresented communities is to start early in kindergarten and early education is really important. This really leads to long lasting excitement and confidence. Studies show that by second grade, both boys and girls have internalized negative stereotypes about who does well in math and science. And it's just really hard to get that sustained engagement the later you start. So we start early and we have multiple entry points and really focus on girls innate curiosity, being innate scientists. Studies have shown that children engage in scientific thinking every 30 seconds. So it's more like we get it taken out of us than needing to bring it in. And in terms of the club format and the organizational format, we really like to emphasize that it's Science Club for girls as opposed to science course for girls. And we are all about having it be fun and social. We don't have assessments, so no tests, no worksheets and no lectures. It's all about hands on experiential learning. Fun but rigor. And our high school age junior mentors, our mentors, even our youngest members talk about how they feel like confidence has been cultivated to tackle real world problems. We were all about making STEM learning accessible and relatable. Over the last 14 years, over 90% of our graduating high schoolers have gone on to college with over 55% of them in majoring in STEM. And in the last three years alone it's been 100% going on to college with 86% of them majoring in STEM. We've served, gosh, upwards of 4,000 girls over the last 30 years and we've only just gotten started.

I ask my question at the beginning. What did you want to be when you were seven. Maybe I need to change that to, what did you want to be when you were five? The reason is that there's a lot of neuroscience research that shows that around the age of seven, people start to, yeah, be influenced by. Maybe that's even earlier now. Maybe we're moving that timetable back. But if you ask a young child what they want to be, they are unashamedly themselves at that age. They are curious. They're. There isn't a lot of external pressure. They might say the craziest things. I wanted to be a horse when I was 7. You just don't care what other people think. And then you start to care. And I think that is really scary, that societal pressure, and especially where girls start to internalize that they are bad at math, they are bad at science, when they're not. That's just what society is telling them. So with those really early age groups, how are you capturing them? How are you bringing them in at 5? That's amazing.

We could do a much better job in this country about showing children what the options are out there. And so our mentor corps really represents a huge array of different careers and different fields in science and technology, engineering, as well as being incredibly diverse in terms of demographics, reflecting the girls and communities we serve. So over 80% of our participants come from communities underrepresented and stem by race, income, or first in their family to go to college. And 60% of our mentors come from those communities as well.

I think a way that we try to bring students in, even at very young ages, is to adapt the curriculum to their ability levels, both thinking about their dexterity at that age, what's going to be actually most engaging and not too challenging, but also thinking about their level of previous exposure to the topic. If they're in sixth through eighth grade, you know, they might have heard about biology writ large. But if they're in kindergarten, how can we really get them to understand more about what is at the core of that word? How can we make an activity that allows them to think about kinesthetically engaging with that topic, rather than just being talked at in a way that might not resonate as deeply?

That makes a lot of sense. What are those developmental stages? So what do you do with converters? What kinesthetically intrigues them and gets them to be scientists later on?

We try to adapt things to their ability level. For example, we made centrifuges as part of our curriculum this past spring for our biotechnology curriculum, and students made their own using a CD string and a Microcentrifuge tube. But for the younger students, we didn't necessarily want them to have all these complex steps. We felt they might get confused and not really learn the core principles that we want them to come away with. So instead of that, we wanted them to more so focus on centripetal force and also having the same kind of concepts drawn out the same way the sixth through eighth grade would, but with different materials. So for that, we had them use cups and a straw to be able to twirl it around basically, and have the two strings on the end of the cup stand up and have them think about, why is that? So why is that happening? And so through kindergarten, through second grade, we often have it be more discussion based for them, so they can really get those ideas flowing, rather than having it be as concretely solely rooted in engineering design processes as the older kids are often engaged in. But they still get initial exposure to engineering concepts just on a smaller scale that age. Another activity that we did our very first week of the biotechnology curriculum was focused on getting students to learn about DNA and how DNA works. And so all the students made DNA models using gumdrops and toothpicks, and they were able to make the full model and also use Twizzlers so they could have a twist as well and replicate the idea of creating a helix of some sort. But for the younger students, we had them more so talk about the concept of DNA afterwards and continue building and modifying that initial structure. Whereas for the older students, we have them extend that activity a bit by thinking about, okay, how can we talk about mutations now and have them physically show that they're removing a toothpick, for example, and really continue to make it relevant as well to everyday life and different experiences they might run into as well, if they go into the scientific or clinical fields or realms at all. So talking about what a point mutation might actually manifest as, and having students talk about that so they can have a deeper understanding about that of the older ages. But really, again, just trying to make sure that it is tailored and really critically thought about what will be most engaging for those different age groups and what will be most legible to them as well.

One thing that we try to do is give biotechs the tools they need to succeed, and especially small startup biotechs. And what I've seen your organization do really well is to pull companies into this mission and also give their employees the ability to have some meaning, some mission, and some development themselves. So how do you engage with small companies or large companies? To bring them into your mission and to also let their employees reap the benefits.

Yeah, that's a great question. We have a number of different ways that we engage companies of all sizes and all areas of STEM and non STEM as well to keep our learning all experiential. We engage companies in a packing project where we get all supplies to all of our participants. Our programs are all free and all the materials are provided. And so in our packing project, it's a great marriage of companies wanting to do team building activities, wanting to do volunteer events, and being really directly rooted in our mission to have hands on learning and having them pack specific items for that curriculum's activity so they get a window in on how we translate these concepts to different age groups. And it really makes the difference of having them feel their direct impact with the participants. We also have a lot of companies give time to their employees to be mentors. And we also have companies that sponsor our showcase event and provide grants as well to help keep our programs free.

That sounds great. Yeah. Ashley, tell us about the mentorship program.

Absolutely. So I think our mentorship program is so special because it really allows for a multidirectional kind of growth and development and change in self. A lot of people witness and I think really testify to happening to themselves as well over the course of being involved in Science Club for Girls. We have junior mentors who are typically high school age students who help with giving their own junior mentor presentation each week through the curriculum on the topic of choice, and then also assist with the classroom. But then we have mentors who range from new college students all the way through post retirement age. And so it's really lovely, I think, to have just such a diversity of experiences and understandings and thoughts on science, but also on life brought to the classroom through our really wonderful group of mentors. And I think it also really helps students envision themselves as scientists because as Bonnie was mentioning, there's real power in seeing yourself represented in some way just at an early age. And I think it's not only through thinking about hearing about the different fields of science. That's a really powerful point because there might be some people who are environmental engineers and there might be other people who do, you know, aerospace engineering and another person who does neuroscience in a range of scientific fields, but also actually seeing people who look like you and who have similar experiences as you doing those activities, engaging in those, really makes it feel tangible to you early on. I think that's really powerful. The different mentoring pods that we kind of form in our individual classrooms. Since we'll have it separated for K to 2 and then 3 to 5 at each school, at each virtual learning environment. Those really flourish too. You know, you have three to four mentors maybe in a room, and then one to three junior mentors. And you guys get to know each other so well over the course of the semester and really grow and learn from each other. Both about more about science, but also just about how to be a better teacher, about how to think about different modes of learning that are most accessible for students and how to really better implement those throughout your life, just in general.

So what I'm hearing is that if you are a mentor, you're also going to be paired with other mentors at other life stages, other career stages. So you might not just get the experience mentoring the younger students in this program, but also maybe being mentored or mentoring other folks.

Our multi layered model really is our power. And I think just pulling on a couple of those different threads, we've had former participants and mentors say that, you know, they didn't question their decision to go into various STEM fields because they had seen women with their shared identities in, in those roles as a child. And it's just so powerful to hear.

Small biotech clients like I work with often one of the reasons for turnover within their company is that early career people don't see the ability or the opportunity within the company to get that mentorship and management experience that they would need to be able to take the next step to be able to lead a team within their company or another company. So one thing that I would want to highlight here is if a small company was feeling like they were on the verge of losing some people because they didn't have that mentorship outlet, would that be a use case to get involved in your mentorship program?

Oh, definitely. What I love about our multi layered model is the youth are at the center. But we also do a great deal to retain women in stem. And I think, I don't know if we all are on the same page of being aware of the MetLife study of a couple of years ago that said women are leaving STEM at twice the rate that men are. And so being in a cohort of women who are, some are in the same field you are in, some are in different fields, but you can share information, share challenges, but also just have fun with somebody who is enjoying science with you in this way. And I think you really also mentioned a really great point about being at a smaller company. We have a bunch of volunteers on our committees as well. So working for Science Club for Girls on the committee or other nonprofits really give young professionals an opportunity to enhance other skills that they might not have an outlet for in their main primary employment. We have an incredible array of powerful accomplished women in our mentor corps and on our board and our committees. Great for networking. I will also say about mentoring, this is a great way to learn how to work with people of all kinds of backgrounds and enhance your communication skills so that also you can communicate complex communities concepts to a broad audience which is always needed, especially in young biotechs. Right? We always need to communicate as scientists which often gets de emphasized. Right? And if you are got the science and STEM background plus communication skills, it really just opens a whole array of possibilities for you.

Hey there, just a quick break. I wanted to let you know that if you're listening to this podcast because you are exploring careers in biotech, which is it turns out quite a few of our listeners actually are, you might be interested in the Biotech Career Coach Podcast. It is brought to you by our sister company, the Collaboratory Career Hub, which is our career development community. If you would like actionable tips on job seeking and career development, that is the place for you. It is a companion podcast to our Career Coach column that we write monthly in Biospace, but we go a little more in depth and sometimes we have special workshops and all of that good stuff. So if that sounds interesting, click the link in the show notes or search for the Biotech Career Coach on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts back to the show. For those of you who are between jobs right now and you are looking for a way to get involved, to grow your network, to add some things to your resume, for example mentorship, would this be a good opportunity for you?

We have had a number of individuals who are between jobs be mentors and also volunteer in other areas again to enhance their careers in terms of marketing, in terms of governance, you name it. And so to be really strong compliments to their skills in the stem area, their proper concentration, as well as broadening their skill sets in other areas.

I love the communication piece you just mentioned too. A lot of folks want to move away from the bench. However, if we could move into communications, into marketing, into some of the really great jobs that surround biotech and still very closely contribute to the science, that's great. But how do you get those skills? So this sounds like a really good opportunity to come in and just get involved, throw your hat in the ring. I would like to learn marketing, I would like to learn communications, I would like to sit on a board or a committee. Is that accurate?

We welcome that. And any science Cook rules and other nonprofits can help enhance those skills as well as our core mentoring and volunteering. And again, as I said, building your network. We have a very large mentor corps and we partner with so many different types of organizations. Of course biotech, life science, pharma, but engineering tech firms, governments, higher education institutions. So it allows individuals to create connections in these different sectors as well.

Are men allowed to be mentors or is this just for women?

Men are mentors. We have Everybody is welcome as a mentor. We feel very strongly that men are a critical part of this piece for so many reasons. Science Club for Girls is really creating the pipeline for the future diverse, skilled workforce which is in great need. We go through these dips in biotech, but chronically for decades we have not had enough people and definitely need more diverse people for a variety of reasons. In addition to the research that says more diverse teams are more productive and more profitable, it's really important to get a diversity of perspectives to the proverbial STEM table to come about. You know, better, more rigorous and robust solutions to global pandemics, climate change, the interface between these different challenges. Also having more diverse teams lead to better solutions. When we have a diverse STEM ecosystem, we create leaders from their own neighborhoods that go into these fields that have better clinical trials and better products, better AI, facial recognition, you name it. The possibilities are endless. But it just leads to a better life for all of us. It really is something that person on the street should be invested in as well as, you know, those of us who are in stem.

I want some success stories.

So I know I've worked closely with a lot of second grade and third grade students, in particular through my experiences at Science Club for Girls. And I remember one particular student who shared with me, I don't know if I belong in stem. I don't know if I'm smart enough to do this. They often would feel like they weren't smart at all and would express that to me, which I was really honored that they felt comfortable talking to me more about these feelings, but also very saddened to hear that they felt that way already so young, you know, at 7 or 8 years old. And I was really struck by seeing over the course of the first semester that they joined Science Club and especially during the second semester that they were in Science Club 4 the students slowly came out of their shell, so to speak, in terms of feeling Confident being actively in class. And eventually by the second semester, they went from not speaking at all, really during their first time in science club, to, to then telling other students, sharing with other students, I should say more about the topic that we're going to delve into that week. Being able to actively engage in any of our kind of question of the day activities and really just becoming someone who was a conduit of knowledge and thought to the other students in the class and feeling empowered and emboldened in that role. And so it was really beautiful to see so quickly that the student felt affirmed and not only their own identity, but also their scientific identity and feeling that they belonged in STEM and that they could actively ask questions and also know that it's okay to make mistakes too. I think they didn't feel pressure to get everything right every time. It's just that they felt comfortable knowing that science is about constantly engaging in an iterative process, constantly changing your design to tinker it, to optimize it, to get to the next stage. So that was really a beautiful thing to witness.

I'm particularly thinking about a mentor who was working at a biotech company who, through the graduate student mentors and some of our visits to higher ed institutions, decided to go to graduate school and take her scientific career to the next level. We haven't really touched on our virtual clubs, so we hold clubs in person. And in the pandemic we developed high quality, really interactive clubs. And we have found through Ashley's great evaluation studies that they are just as effective in all of our goals as the in person clubs. But what's great about that is that it brings in the family on a whole different level than our in person clubs do. So we have little brothers coming in on the zoom. We have grandparents. And it really talks about bringing that whole STEM literacy journey to the whole family along on this path. But the girl is always in charge and it is clear. And we hear from families that they're all learning more about STEM because of their daughter being in this program, and that they are hearing so much more from their daughter in general about what her feelings and thoughts are.

In addition to our semester based programming that we do in the fall and the spring, we also have vacation week programming and summer programming. So we do a coding club for participants. We also do an AI Robotics club for participants where they can learn more about both of those respective fields that I've mentioned. And in the summer we do a rocketry club where students can actually launch their own model rockets, both water bottle rockets. Is how they start and then they eventually design their own actual rocket with fuel and actually get to see that launch in a field which is really exciting for them. And they learn a lot about aerospace engineering and design processes. And so we really like to have those programs as well, to have a continuity to our programs for students. A lot of students, both participants and junior mentors will be engaged in not only those term time based programs, but also the vacation week program during April and February vacation and then also during the summertime as well.

That's fun. I often tell the story that I am a scientist today because my sixth grade teacher took us out into the parking lot and blew things up. That's the simplified version, but it actually was launching bottle rockets. Yeah. So we launched them right out in the parking lot and it was so fun. And honestly I remember that so vividly because that sort of experience just sticks with you. It's launching things into not quite outer space but hype parking lot.

That's a great story. And that's the same age group for these vacation weeks is, you know, middle school age and really focusing on that age group when again there's a heightened diverting away from stem. So really learning all the different aspects of rocketry and doing NASA calisthenics and all those aspects about bringing in the different parts of going into rocketry and aerospace engineering and such.

The more I hear about the program, there doesn't seem to be a downside in getting involved. There can be a monetary contribution. We've certainly sponsored events in the past and I know you have some event space to sponsor and some things to sponsor. You can get involved with your time, your company can get involved with with time. And so there's a lot of ways to contribute to this organization that are not just about getting out your checkbook, but if you did want to get out your checkbook, how might somebody do that?

We always welcome donations and we have grants from companies as well as sponsoring our showcase event which is a really great way to be involved in our organization. Learn more about our organization, meet people like Ashley and hear from our current participants and our emerging leaders as well as meet our partners from again array of companies. Our Catalyst Awards is our showcase event where we honor individuals who are mission aligned in promoting a more diverse ecosystem. And we just recently honored Dr. Cruz Smith of Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Dr. Giovanni of Seismic Therapeutic, both leaders in their areas and just incredible role models for all ages as well as we have Kid Packing which is as a sponsorship opportunity and our TV show. So during the Pandemic we developed online fun TV show for our youngest audience members kindergarten through fifth grade. Science Club for Girls really is the main provider of STEM education in early elementary years in addition to being K through 12. And so companies can be involved in a whole array of different levels of financial sponsorship of the TV show. And it's been a really great experience to bring in a team to act out different concepts at the most accessible level.

That sounds great. And that's another opportunity to spread because you are based in Massachusetts and that if it's classroom based, that does limit your reach. But a TV show that can go anywhere. Do you have plans to expand the virtual clubs to other areas?

So we the virtual clubs have maintained their extreme popularity. Really is a lesson in parents needing options and families needing options, especially in underrepresented communities. And there are so many reasons why we have a whole other show on that. But yeah, we have grown 370% in the last five years and big component of that is our virtual programming. So we are currently serving this fall, 775 participants in in our semester based clubs alone. About 55% of that is in virtual clubs and 45 in person. And our in person clubs are in Cambridge, Boston and Dorchester. And our virtual clubs reach over 183 schools in the greater Boston and Gateway cities. I represent individuals from those schools rather. And so in the next five years we will be more than doubling that reach in our geographic span. As we've been expanding, we have maintained a wait list of over a hundred children each semester with each growth. Which really brings home the point that underrepresentation is not due to a lack of interest. Right. Or as crazy as it sounds, aptitude that girls and gender expansive youth have always been interested in stem, always want to be engaged at stem, whatever the age, it's the opportunity and the encouragement and the accessibility. So we're all about breaking down barriers, barriers of accessibility. And you know, if you make STEM relatable and fun, they will be knocking down doors to get at it. In our science clubs at the end of the semester we do a little science fest that is it's not on the scale of a science fair. It's more of sharing what we've learned in that semester within our club between other clubs, inviting parents and friends in. And there was one incredibly powerful moment with one of our days of virtual clubs where we have upwards of 100 people on a zoom all in breakout rooms, intimate size, seven girls, a couple of adult mentors, a junior mentor. But at one of these Science fests. We got rid of all the breakout rooms. And so there were just scrolls and scrolls of girls and women who all were there because they love stem. And the girls could see literally hundreds of girls and women that like doing this. And talk about the empowerment of feeling, you know, your space and comfortable with your enthusiasm because of seeing scores and scores of women and girls.

That definitely validates your excitement and interest. That's wonderful. What is on your book list right now?

I just finished reading A Black Physician Reckons with medical racism by Dr. Ute Blackstock, which is a really wonderful book talking about medical racism, as is in the title, but also interweaving many moments from Dr. Blackstock's own life into that narrative to both explain her own personal experiences with medical racism, her family personal experiences, medical racism, and the experiences she's had as an emergency physician seeing medical racism manifest itself and lead to disparate outcomes, to diagnostic lapses and the really deleterious consequences of that. And it was just a really powerful and beautifully written book and I would highly recommend it to anyone.

I don't have a lot of experience in the medical field, but where I see it talked about often is the clinical trials realm. I've had a number of guests come on the show and talk very deeply about clinical trial design and how it needs to still be improved.

Yes. And I would just say too, there's this sense also related to kind of trials that happened in the past. And rightly there is a sense of medical distrust in certain communities who have been historically impacted by those trials, who have been unethically treated in a lot of these trials in the past. But I really appreciated how Dr. Blackstock encouraged us to reframe that idea, to not just put the onus so much on the communities to reduce the amount of distrust that they have, but more so for the institutions who have perpetuated this harm in the past to think about how can they cultivate systems of trust in the future and really think about the onus being placed back onto themselves to change. Because I think there often is rhetoric around medical distrust. Those communities need to change their perceptions rather than thinking about the institutions themselves, creating safer environments and really actively going out to those communities and inviting Quantum in.

I would agree with that. Yeah, thank you. That's a great suggestion.

I have two, well, many on my nightstand, but two that I think would be especially interesting to your audience. One is the Exceptions, Nancy Hopkins and the Fight for Women in Science. And I just shared, I think it's 13 minute documentary on this Important groundbreaking study that is just based on taking a measuring tape around MIT and measuring the amount of space that was allotted to women faculty versus men faculty in the 90s, I believe 1994, around the time that Science Club for Girls was started. And the hard numbers, hard to ignore. And what was really interesting to me was in showing the documentary to our staff was that so many of our staff members even being embedded in this work, were incredulous that this was not that long ago. Right. It's great to understand where we've come from, to plan out where we're going and to see people like then president of MIT recognizing and acting on the study. And it's important to give people room to make the changes to improve. And which leads me to the other book which some I stand amongst the 20 books that are there, the Includers by Colette Phillips, who is clearly a prominent leader in Boston with her expertise in PR and marketing. But really speaking to the importance of having everyone engaged in the movement, but especially white men in the movement to have more diverse and equitable Boston and beyond inclusive workspaces. And this is really the important work and desire motivation for everybody. I often have CEOs and heads of chemistry because I was trained as a PhD organic chemistry from Harvard and made went through biotech, et cetera, before making the transition. But my colleagues from the past saying that they support Science Club for Girls White Men because they have seen too many people not get to the point that they should great women that they have trained see their careers fall off and they really are frustrated by the loss of that talent and what the untapped talent of people who don't even get to that point represent. I think it's a really great message and I would just like to also add we deal with very serious and critical issues at Science Club for Girls. But from such a place of hope and optimism and positivity, you cannot help but be buoyed by the girls gender expansive youth and women in our organization. And really going back to the joy and excitement of STEM research is hard. Right. And I always say there are more valleys than peaks. And being involved in mentoring can take you out of that myopic world and have you be a part of something bigger than yourself. And when you are responsible for a young person's excitement makes you reconnect to why you're in this in the first place. And so I think it's a wonderful thing.

Yeah, it's a great organization. Thank you both so much for coming on and sharing your experience and how people can get involved if they want to reach out. What is the best way to do that?

Well, you can go to our website but also all of our team members. Emails are their first, initial and Last name@scienceclobeforgirls.org Amazing.

I will link your website in the show notes. I will link both of your LinkedIn profiles and thank you so much for coming on the show. I appreciate it. Building Biotechs is brought to you by Recruitomics Consulting. You can find Building Biotechs in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or anywhere else podcasts are found. Make sure to click subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes and join our mailing list for a weekly dose of biotech tech news and a podcast overview. And if you need to install a recruitment engine that saves time and money for your growing company, reach out for a free strategy session. I'm always happy to share my expertise and show you techniques to simplify your hiring process and maximize returns. On behalf of the team here at Recruitomics Consulting, thanks for listening.