Team:William and Mary/Human Practices/Incorporating new communities
Incorporating New Communities
As synthetic biology continues to expand, it is becoming increasingly important to incorporate more disciplines into our field. This year, our team worked to build new connections with seven distinct populations who play an important role in research and implementation of synthetic biology projects.
Retirement Communities
The 60+ population can’t always attend our public forums, but they still vote on and are impacted by our research. This year, we met with over 50 retirees to discuss the ethics and applications of synthetic biology.
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Future Policy Makers
Model United Nations
Global and domestic policy determine which bioengineering projects get implemented outside of the lab. To help start the discussion of synthetic biology in the next generation of policy makers, we connected with 150+ High School Model United Nations Students.
Business Students
Having business partnerships is crucial in promoting bioengineering projects to the public. This year, we connected with 21 business students to promote future collaborations between STEM and entrepreneurship.
Young Women in STEM
Our team wanted to inspire more young women to join STEM fields. To this end, we partnered with Classical Academy Homeschooling Cohort and the Girl Scouts of the Colonial Coast to create Ladies in the Lab. The event hosted 28 girls in October and will host 100+ more in November.
Established Women
Supporting STEM
Our efforts to engage women in STEM continued during William & Mary’s Women Weekend. We presented a poster during the weekend; 100+ women came to view our poster and more than 20 women had in depth conversations with our female team members about our project.
Camp Launch & SEP
Not all students have the opportunity to work with lab equipment or be exposed to many potential careers in science. We partnered with Camp Launch and William & Mary’s School of Education to reach more than 120 students from diverse socioeconomic statuses.
Medical Explorers
Our partnership with Warwick High school brings in 20 Medical Explorer Students for a two day intense experience with University level lab work.