It's summertime: Do you know where your teenagers are? A piece in the Palo Alto Weekly discusses some of the choice science internships available to local high-school students at Stanford and other universities in the region. Shadowing scientists in the lab and even contributing to research, the young interns learn real-world applications for subjects they learn in school. They also gain work experience and exposure to academic careers in STEM fields. And a high-profile internship couldn't hurt to include on college applications.
From the piece:
Coordinators often have to sift through hundreds of applications from students applying from all over the country and internationally. One of the most sought after is the Stanford Institutes of Medicine Summer Research Program, which alone received about 1,400 applications this year to fill about 70 to 75 openings. Decisions are based on academic grounds to help narrow down the number of prospective candidates — a tough task in a pool of extremely well-educated candidates.
But coordinators also recognize the need to provide opportunities for students who don't have the chance to join accelerated science programs and express that oftentimes the most important quality of an applicant is a passion for science.
The article notes that internships gained through family and friend connections can be unevenly distributed, and how programs like Stanford's Raising Interest in Science and Engineering (RISE) Summer Internship Program have made the experiences more accessible. More from the piece:
"Typically those are kids with very educated parents who speak fluent English and who are comfortable poking around Stanford a little bit ... or have a network and know somebody who works in a lab here. The RISE students typically just don't have family members that can help them in that way," [Kate Storm] says. "I think it's important to serve all students, not just the privileged gifted students who are going to thrive and do well no matter what because they've got the backing of their school and parents and siblings."
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These types of opportunities are important to start curbing the racial disparities that exist in STEM occupations. Roughly 70 percent of the people in STEM occupations were Caucasian, 14 percent Asian, 6.5 percent Hispanic and 6.4 percent African American, according to an American Community Survey Report from the U.S. Census Bureau in 2011. Since 2008, Storm says about 80 percent of RISE graduates have gone on to major in math, engineering or science in college.
Researchers are also passionate about increasing the number of girls in labs since women are also largely underrepresented in STEM fields. The same 2011 U.S. Census Bureau report stated that roughly 25.8 percent of those in STEM occupations are women, compared to 45.7 percent of all jobs.
Previously: Residential learning program offers undergrads a new approach to scientific inquiry, The “transformative experience” of working in a Stanford stem-cell lab, Image of the Week: CIRM intern Brian Woo’s summer project, Image of the Week: CIRM intern Christina Bui’s summer project and Stanford’s RISE program gives high-schoolers a scientific boost
Photo by Amy
