“I always enjoy making candy DNA with students. They are always excited at the end when they get to hold DNA. It takes something that can seem very abstract and allows the students to understand it in a very tangible way,” explained Courtney Johnson, a student in the Biochemical Mechanisms in Medicine Discipline of the Integrated Biomedical Sciences Ph.D. program. “It always sparks conversations about mutations and how that can affect our health. Most of the time, the students that at the beginning just wanted to eat the candy are now reluctant to dismantle their precious double helix. ”

Liliana Espinoza, a student in the Neuroscience Discipline of the Integrated Biomedical Sciences Ph.D. program, said that she really liked working with the Palo Alto students because they were so inquisitive and eager to learn.

“The students were encouraged to ask us questions about the scientific field, what our everyday life as a graduate student is like, or any question they may have had. All of the students had great questions, especially about genetics and how it plays a role in the pathogenesis of many diseases. They were so young and extremely smart!”

Elizabeth Ochoa Thomas, a student in the Cell Biology, Genetics, and Molecular Medicine discipline in the Integrated Biomedical Sciences Ph.D. program, said that she had a great time meeting the STEM summer experience participants.

“It’s always a wonderful experience to volunteer with students. It’s great to watch them get excited about the experiments that we are doing and to “see” the gears turning in their minds. The best part of these outreach events is when the kids get to ask us questions, because they always amaze me with the wide variety of things that they ask about,” Ochoa Thomas said. “It is truly great that one short session can get these students so thrilled about science, and that the kids can connect what we do during our activities with their daily experiences.  The kids did a great job at building candy DNA, they worked well as a team to build and use their microscope, and when our DNA extraction went a little sideways, one kid even said “it’s ok miss, scientists make mistakes!”

Ochoa Thomas said that she loves doing science outreach because it is imperative for her to help encourage kids to stay excited about science and being curious.

“A student asked why we (the volunteers) were in science and at first majority of us answered that we ‘ just really love science.’ But we also spoke to the fact that we were motivated to become scientists for a wide range of reasons. I mentioned that when I was their age, the number of Latina scientists I knew was very limited, and I really didn’t interact with adults that looked like me and were in STEM, all things that I want to change now. Someone else mentioned that she is in science because her loved ones were sick when she was a kid, and she wanted to change that for other people. I think that for this group of students who are interested in STEM, these messages were really important to hear and identify with. I could go into the details, statistics and reasons why, but it is really important that we as the adults who are in science take time to explain and demonstrate that our interests in science from when we were kids can and does become something really cool.  On the other hand, doing outreach is really good for graduate students. It creates a time and space where we practice explaining science in easy terms, where we get to laugh and have fun, and reminds us why we are in graduate school and the larger goal we are working towards.”

Johnson also had similar sentiments and mentioned that it was important for her that students realize that scientists come from many different backgrounds.

“I hope that I am able to help them realize that Hispanic women can be scientists and that all it requires is a desire to never stop learning.”

Espinoza said that for her it was important to show students it is possible for everyone to become a scientist.

“I was working with a group of seven students who ranged from 6th to 9th grade. When I asked what they wanted to become when they grew up, only one of them wanted to pursue a career in science. All but one of these students were from underrepresented minority groups, and many would be the first in their families to attend college. This is why science outreach is important to me. As graduate students, we play a pivotal role in introducing a glimpse of the scientific world to the young leaders of tomorrow, nurturing their inquisitive minds, and showing them that science can be fun. Moreover, as a first generation student myself, I can lead by example and show them that it is possible to pursue a career in the STEM field.  All of this is done in hopes that they too can see themselves as a scientist one day.”