On November 29th, Abby Ballard, Gracie Clark, and Gisselle Prida Ajo served as Shadow A Scientist graduate student science ambassadors.
Shadow A Scientist is a graduate student run organization that provides opportunities for high school students to interact with science in an exciting new way by experiencing a day in the life of a research scientist. This program highlights the opportunity for students of all backgrounds to become a researcher and break down barriers and myths that currently prevent young students from populations historically underrepresented in the sciences from pursuing science.
This program, Shadow A Scientist (SAS), brings high school students to UNC’s campus for a day to shadow two scientists in their respective labs. They split high school students into small groups of 2-4 and pair them with a scientist at UNC. In addition to the shadow sessions, high school students chat in small groups with scientists during lunch. In total, this requires ~40 ambassador volunteers each event day.We are so proud of our graduate students who made these Shadow A Scientist visits memorable, engaging, and full of helpful advice to our future scientists!