ms infinity Update January 2014
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It’s only one month into 2014 and already ms infinity is having a great year! We held two events in January and are gearing up for another in February, and then eMentoring will be starting before we know it!
On January 18, we partnered with the YWCA High School Mentorship Program to hold a STEM-focussed Career Café event for their participants. We had 15 girls attend along with 3 of their mentors. Maria Issa gave an inspiring keynote address about her experiences as a woman scientist, and then she was joined by ms infinity volunteers Anne Simonen, Maryam Zarepour, and Veronica Galvin who each spent time talking to small groups of girls about their careers and answering questions. It was great sitting in the middle of the room hearing snippets of conversation from the different groups! Judging from how difficult it was to get the girls to rotate to a different Role Model when their time was up, I know they were soaking up the information!
January 27 found ms infinity at the Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre with volunteer Claire Bomkamp to facilitate a workshop with their Because We’re Girls Group. Claire brought supplies to make microscopes out of smartphones (!!!). This was the neatest thing I have seen in a while and the girls had tons of fun finding things to look at and take a million pictures of! We had bits of wood and feathers, fabric, moss, peppercorns, toys, and each other’s hands, clothes, and shoes! And to top it off, both Claire and my phones and tablet remained unharmed at the end of the workshop, so it was a rousing success overall.
I want to also mention that eMentoring is coming up and I am still accepting new mentors! We do have a waitlist for students this year and I would like to get as many as possible matched up. The time commitment is minimal, about an hour/week for eight weeks, all done over email. We are especially in need of professionals in the health sciences. Please contact me if you would like more information on becoming a mentor!
Jeannine McCormack, ms infinity Program Coordinator