International Day of Women and Girls in Science
Feb. 8, 2024 – The United Nations declared Feb. 11 as the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, recognizing the need to bring diverse perspectives, fresh talent and creativity to the field. Since that original declaration in 2013, there is still a ways to go to achieve gender parity in science, technology, engineering and math.
In LFS, we want to highlight a few students who took some time out to share why they are passionate about science and who inspires them.
Emma Doyon, Undergraduate student in Applied Biology
“It is extremely exciting that science allows me to learn more about everything in our world, from soil and animals all the way to our solar system. As a person who loves learning and understanding how our world works, I find it fascinating to learn about the relationships between animals and how they are able to coexist in an ecosystem.”
Savini Goel, Undergraduate student in Global Resource Systems
“Ecology and earth science have always been very interesting to me but I started to really develop a need to understand the world better when I found out that we need to ‘keep warming below 1.5 degrees’. I didn’t fully understand what we meant by that when I was younger but I became invested in informing myself about the significance of these numbers, and I still continue to educate myself about them today.”
Lindsay Goodridge, PhD candidate in Human Nutrition
“Through my Nutrition and Dietetics degree and into my Masters of Public Health at the University of Toronto, I started to broaden my conceptualization of science outside the microscopic lens and focus on the ways I could transfer my passion and early years skills into community-level changes. Now my scientific work tends to focus on aspects of health equity and social justice which I am enjoying tremendously.”
Christina Doelling, MSc candidate in Applied Animal Biology
“I think the greatest challenge I had to tackle was changing my career from one in fine art (I received a BFA in 2012) to scientific research in animal welfare. I had to reach out to lots of people in the field, work very hard, and take every opportunity possible to get to a place in my life where I could apply to a program like the Animal Welfare Program. I learned that folks you may be afraid to reach out to are more than happy to talk about their research and want to help aspiring scientists when they can!”
Ashley Jang, Undergraduate student in Applied Biology
“I discovered that I enjoyed learning about science back in elementary school when I came across an introductory book about family trees, genetics, and evolution. I became interested in all the different factors that influenced people to be the way they are. From there, I noticed that I naturally gravitated towards learning about the interrelationship between humans and the environment.”
Karyna Howell, MSc candidate in Soil Science
“The biggest challenge I had to tackle was finding where I belonged in the scientific community. My final year of my undergrad in biochemistry, I felt so lost and disconnected from my goals. When I graduated, I decided I would try a lot of different jobs, which was the best decision I could have made because I found what I didn’t like and eventually stumbled my way here into something I love.”
Tagged with: 2024, Women and Girls in Science