Date: June 20th, max 40 participants
Time: 5:30pm to 7:30pm 
Cost: Free • RSVP required
Location: GCE Lab School, 9 W Washington Street

Please see the website for more information or to register for the event today!

Saturday, May 20th, 2023 from 12:30-2:30 PM CST @ Harper High School

Racialized inequities within STEM, or the unequal distribution of opportunities and resources based on race, have led to disparities in academic achievement and outcomes for BlPOC youth. Black students, in particular, are often underrepresented in STEM fields and are more likely to face barriers preventing them from succeeding.

One factor contributing to this inequality is the historical legacy of racism and discrimination, which has resulted in limited access to quality education, resources, and opportunities for many Black individuals. Additionally, the lack of representation and cultural competence in STEM fields has created a difficult environment for Black students to succeed; role models that reflect Black students can create a STEM environment that is more comfortable and safe to navigate.

To address this issue from a comprehensive lens, we must first acknowledge that the current system of education and STEM is built on oppressive structures, where not enough efforts have been made to facilitate proper STEM education for Black youth in particular. Even current efforts from government and private agencies are yet to be effective. We must work towards a more just and equitable society by dismantling the systems perpetuating these inequalities and replacing them with alternatives, prioritizing community empowerment, liberation, and healing.

Building on the efforts of our partner, Teamwork Englewood (TE), particularly that of Program Manager Avanii Hazzard’s commitment to center the needs of desires of the youth she works with, this program will invite experts to sit in rotating roundtable conversations with program attendee’s. These conversations will be led by TE’s youth and will center their curiosity and desires for what knowledge they want to share and learn about. Non-TE attendee’s are invited to participate in the discussions, where questions for our experts are welcome!

Join Teamwork Englewood, The Association for Women in Science, and The Chicago Council on Science and Technology for a chance to center youth in a conversation about what it means to be Black in STEM.

For more information and to register through C2ST, click here.
For more information and to register on EventBrite, click here.

Rush University is hosting Dr. Amanda Schalk on Wednesday, March 22^nd at 3 PM to discuss her journey as a scientist and her path to entrepreneurship in the biotech industry! Dr. Schalk is also an AWIS summer mentor and was named SOTM in 2020. Questions will be open to the audience at the end or can be submitted beforehand. If you would like to submit a question, please click here (link: https://forms.gle/NDFBYtt5TrZHWJKp9).

Dr. Schalk is a co-founder and Chief Operations Officer at Enzyme by Design and a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She completed her BS in Biochemistry at Eastern Michigan University and her Master’s and Ph.D. at the International Max Planck Research School for Molecular Biology in Goettingen, Germany. Her postdoc at Dr. Lavie’s lab at the UIC was developing protein anti-cancer therapeutics using structural biology. She worked 2 years off the bench as a virtual lab manager with small biotechs across the country. In 2017, her team from UIC spun out their safer cancer therapeutics technology into the startup Enzyme by Design where she is co-founder and Chief Operating Officer and enjoying the rollercoaster adventure of entrepreneurship.

To register for the event, please click here (link: https://forms.gle/mEvTjneDmKH6VvXh9). This is a hybrid event, so it will be available virtually and a link to the event will be sent out to registered attendees prior to the event. Feel free to e-mail Christina Nowicki (christina_a_nowicki@rush.edu) if you have any questions!