Fall 2014
GWISE Yoga Group
Date and Time: WEEKLY: Mondays & Wednesdays, 5:30pm-6:30pm
Location: Photonics 9th Floor, West End Lounge (8 St. Mary’s Street)
Take a break with GWISE Yoga. Join us for a good, all-around yoga practice that can benefit your mind, body, and soul. All levels, genders, and ages are welcome. Please bring a yoga or exercise mat. Email Atcha at totachaw@bu.edu to sign up for weekly updates (location/time changes, additional classes) or with any questions or concerns. Hope to see you there!
GWISE Girls’ Science Club @ West-End House: Seeking Volunteer Mentors!
Date and Time: WEEKLY: Thursdays, 5:30pm-6:30pm
Location: West-End House Boys and Girls Club, Allston St., Boston, MA 02134
Come volunteer with the Girls’ Science Club, an outreach program developed and hosted by GWISE! We coordinate fun, hands-on activities for elementary school girls, which will convey important concepts in diverse STEM fields. Our goals are to help young girls gain a better understanding of basic scientific concepts and engineering principles, get them excited about science and engineering, and encourage them to pursue future careers in STEM fields. This is a great opportunity to be a positive STEM role model for young women!
We are looking for GWISE members who are interested in mentoring elementary school girls at our weekly sessions at the West-End House. Mentor commitment is flexible (you can volunteer for one session, or as many as you’d like). For more information about the Girls’ Science Club, visit our website. Please contact Sarabeth at sarabeth@bu.edu to get involved as a mentor, or with any questions.
GWISE Immersion Science Club @ West-End House: Seeking Volunteer Mentors!
Date and Time: WEEKLY: Tuesdays, 5:30pm-6:40pm
Location: West-End House Boys and Girls Club, Allston St., Boston, MA 02134
Mentor elementary school girls in marine science and climate change through the Immersion Science Club at the West-End House! Immersion is a program implemented at select Boys and Girls Clubs nationwide that aims to bring science and exploration to kids from diverse backgrounds. The Immersion curriculum, developed in partnership with the Sea Research Foundation and National Geographic, provides educational reading material, hands-on activities, colorful illustrations and fun games designed to inspire kids to care for the ocean and the planet. Also, this program aims to connect girls with STEM role models. Participate biweekly as a mentor and join our field trips as you inspire young girls to care for the planet through science and exploration. Explore the ocean with Immersion!
This club requires more commitment than the GWISE-developed Girls’ Science Club. Mentors will be working directly with a group of ~3 girls to develop a longer-term mentoring relationship. We will also have mentors who are in charge of leading the weekly activity. The Immersion program will provide funding and support for 1-2 field trips (ex. aquarium or whale watching), to which all mentors are invited. For more information about the Immersion program, visit the Immersion website. Please contact Gracia at gracia@bu.edu to get involved as a mentor, or with any questions.
GWISE Mothers’ Group
Date and Time: N/A
Location: N/A
Mothers and mothers-to-be: Let’s get together and share with each other our latest updates. It’ll be fun, and there will be food! GWISE Mothers’ Group seeks to host events for moms or moms-to-be in science and engineering. We will get together twice a month for tea and cookies (maybe lunch), and discuss anything and everything concerning parenthood during grad school. Some initial ideas for discussions are:
– Forming an accountability group for moms to chat about the problems they may face as graduate moms, such as inability to go to school, time management, focusing problems, etc.
– Discussing policy-related problems current moms have been facing as well as new plans to put in place for moms-to-be
– Scheduling play dates for the graduate kids
– Just getting together to vent about kids, research, or both!
If you would like to be a part of the Mothers’ Group this year and receive emails with information on our meetings, please sign up for our MAILING LIST. If you were on the previous Mother’s Group mailing list, please re-sign up for our updated 2014-2015 list. Please contact Esther at raymonde@bu.edu for more details and with any questions.
GWISE Welcome Panel for 1st-Year Students & Semester Kick-Off Reception
Date and Time: Thursday, September 4 from 5:30-7:30pm
Location: LSEB Room 103 (24 Cummington Mall)
We’re excited to start the Fall semester with our Welcome events! The Welcome Panel (5:30-6:30pm) will be a great opportunity for incoming 1st years to ask our experienced panelists questions about grad school life. Afterwards, the Semester Kick-Off Reception (6:30-7:30pm) will include food, drinks, good company, and an opportunity to meet new friends and colleagues.
ALL GWISE members are welcome! Don’t forget to invite your male colleagues as well. We hope to see you there!
GWISE/WISE Mentoring Program 2014-2015: Applications
Date and Time: DEADLINE: Monday, September 8
Location: N/A
The GWISE/WISE Mentoring Program will be a year-long event during the upcoming academic year! WISE @ Warren and WISE-UP are specialty communities here at BU dedicated to supporting undergraduate women in science and engineering. Our objectives for this program are to: (1) Connect the undergraduate and graduate WISE communities, (2) Support the academic and professional growth of undergraduate women in STEM fields, and (3) Provide an opportunity for graduate WISE students to develop as future leaders and mentors.
By participating in this mentoring program as GWISE mentors, you will receive valuable mentoring and leadership experience as well as an opportunity to interact with the WISE community at BU through building and fostering a 1-on-1, mentor-mentee relationship. Additionally, GWISE will provide resources and programming to enrich your mentoring experience.
To sign up to become a GWISE mentor for an undergraduate WISE student, please fill out this APPLICATION by Monday, September 8. Please note that by participating in this program, you will be expected to (1) Attend the GWISE/WISE Mentoring Program Kick-Off Event (late Sept/Oct) and (2) Schedule at least one meeting with your WISE Mentee per month for the duration of the 2014-2015 academic year. Please email Stacy at slchin12@bu.edu and Iriny at irinye@bu.edu with any questions or concerns.
GWISE Summer Book Club — The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Date and Time: Tuesday, September 9 at 12pm
Location: 44 Cummington Mall, Room 705
After his great portrayal of a guilty man in Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky set out in The Idiot to portray a man of pure innocence. The twenty-six-year-old Prince Myshkin, following a stay of several years in a Swiss sanatorium, returns to Russia to collect an inheritance and “be among people.” Even before he reaches home he meets the dark Rogozhin, a rich merchant’s son whose obsession with the beautiful Nastasya Filippovna eventually draws all three of them into a tragic denouement. In Petersburg the prince finds himself a stranger in a society obsessed with money, power, and manipulation. Scandal escalates to murder as Dostoevsky traces the surprising effect of this “positively beautiful man” on the people around him, leading to a final scene that is one of the most powerful in all of world literature.
The Idiot is available for free on Kindle. If you would like to borrow a hard copy, GWISE has a few copies to loan. Please contact Junzi at junzid@bu.edu to borrow one.
GWISE Fellowship Panel: “How to Find and Win a Fellowship”
Date and Time: Thursday, September 18 from 6:00pm-8:00pm
Location: 24 Cummington Mall (LSEB), Room 103
Interested in learning more about fellowships and external funding opportunities for your graduate career? Want to get valuable advice about how to put together a competitive application? Join GWISE on Thursday, September 18 for our informative Panel and Q&A session featuring BU fellowship winners and faculty advisors! Learn about what types of fellowships and application resources are available, what components a good fellowship application includes, and what the application timeline and review process look like. Food will be provided. RSVP to the link above!
WISEguys Kick-Off Social
Date and Time: Tuesday, September 23 from 5:00pm-6:00pm
Location: 24 Cummington Mall (LSEB), Room 103
Are you a WISEguy? If you’re interested in supporting women in STEM, come to our Kick-Off event! Join WISEguys for a night of snacks, drink, and good conversation. Bring a new WISEguy (or more) to the event and get entered for a sweet raffle prize!
WISEguys is a group of guys who support the GWISE mission of advancing women in STEM. By increasing awareness and getting men active in the GWISE community, we can make gender equality a reality. Please contact Kellen at kandril@bu.edu with any questions about the Kick-Off event or the WISEguys group.
GWISE Scavenger Hunt
Date and Time: Thursday, September 25 from 5:30pm-8:00pm
Location: Meet at Communications building lawn (640 Commonwealth Ave.)
Come join GWISE for our 1st annual scavenger hunt across the BU campus! You will be put into teams and given a list of places to go to and things to find. Prizes will be given to the team with the most points! There will also be a light dinner served after the hunt in LSEB 103, from 7:00-8:00pm.
GWISE Accountability Groups Kick-Off Event
Date and Time: Tuesday, September 30 from 5:30pm-7:00pm
Location: 24 Cummington Mall (LSEB), Room 103
GWISE Accountability Groups are peer mentoring groups of 3-4 people who are focused on working together to encourage accomplishment of specific goals (EX. passing qualifying exams, writing a paper, giving a presentation at a conference, meeting fellowship deadlines, etc.). Members in a group will hold each other accountable for accomplishing their goals throughout the academic year, and will provide feedback on progress and advice for future steps.
Join GWISE for the 3rd annual Accountability Group Kick-Off Event! Dr. Joanne Kamens will talk about peer-to-peer mentoring, and how to make an accountability group work for you. After her talk, there will be time to mingle with other graduate students and sign-up for accountability groups based on shared goals. Light dinner will be provided. RSVP to the link above!
GWISE Professional Development Grants
Date and Time: DEADLINE: Friday, October 3
Location: N/A
Interested in attending a professional development workshop or event, but need help paying for registration fees or other expenses? Consider applying for a GWISE Professional Development Grant (PDG)! The PDG Program is designed to help our members benefit from professional development opportunities in the Boston area and beyond by providing funding for participation in professional development events.
We will fund a range of opportunities, including workshops, networking events, memberships in professional societies, and conferences. For example, MASS AWIS, WEST, and MassBio all hold events that might be of interest to graduate students. Please be aware that grants are not intended for travel to scientific meetings where you will be presenting research.
Check out the GWISE website HERE for more information about the PDG Program. If interested, please apply online through this APPLICATION FORM. Our first PDG deadline is Friday, October 3! You will be notified within one week of the application deadline whether you will receive an award. Please contact Allison at allisonq@bu.edu with any questions.
GWISE October Book Club: A Ph.D. Is Not Enough! by Peter J. Feibelman
Date and Time: Wednesday, October 8 at 12:00pm
Location: 44 Cummington Mall (ERB), Room 401
In A Ph.D. Is Not Enough!, physicist Peter J. Feibelman lays out a rational path to a fulfilling long-term research career. He offers sound advice on selecting a thesis or postdoctoral advisor; choosing among research jobs in academia, government laboratories, and industry; preparing for an employment interview; and defining a research program. The guidance offered in A Ph.D. Is Not Enough! will help you make your oral presentations more effective, your journal articles more compelling, and your grant proposals more successful.
GWISE has a few copies of the book to loan. If you would like to borrow a hard copy or e-Book, please contact Junzi at junzid@bu.edu.
GWISE 2014 Mentor of the Year Award: Call for Nominations!
Date and Time: DEADLINE: Friday, October 10 at 5:00pm
Location: N/A
GWISE is soliciting nominations for our new, annual Mentor of the Year Award! This award recognizes an individual who has demonstrated a deep commitment to fostering the professional growth, career development, and/or independence of one or more members of the BU GWISE community. The goal of this award is to show appreciation to individuals who promote women in STEM on a small scale, simply by mentoring and supporting future female leaders.
If you have a mentor (does not have to be your Research Advisor) who has had a significant impact on your personal growth and/or career development, you are encouraged to nominate her/him for this award! Fill out the NOMINATION FORM here by this Friday, October 10. The GWISE Board will review all nominations and announce the winner of the award at our annual Fall Luncheon in mid-November.
Please email Marianna at msayeg@bu.edu with any questions regarding nominations.
GWISE Coffee and Conversations: Gendered Toys
Date and Time: Tuesday, October 14 from 2:00-3:00pm
Location: 110 Cummington Mall, Room 245
Join GWISE for a new series, Coffee and Conversations. In this series, we hope to provoke meaningful discussions about issues relevant to women in STEM. This month, we will dive into the world of gendered toys. Walk into any stores selling toys for kids and you’ll be met with the following: a sea of pink full of dolls (for girls) and a wall of blue filled with trucks and superheroes (for boys). We’ll talk about whether boys and girls have innate toy preferences – and if those preferences justify the vast differences in which toys end up being marketed to girls. One concern lately has been whether, and to what extent, the toys that we play with as children affect our future career choices. While there exists little research on this aspect of gendered toys, there is speculation that the lack of both role models (dolls more often than not have non-STEM occupations) and building toys for girls contributes to the dearth of women in science and engineering fields. Can companies such as GoldieBlox help to bring girls into engineering? Check out the articles below, and join us for a discussion on gender and negotiation over coffee, tea, and snacks!
Sex differences in rhesus monkey toy preferences parallel those of children (research paper on “innate” toy preferences)
Why Are Toys So Gendered? (popular science article taking an opposing position)
Do children’s toys influence their career choices? (speculative BBC article)
GWISE Fellowship Workshop: “Writing Competitive Fellowship Essays”
Date and Time: Wednesday, October 15 from 6:00pm-8:00pm
Location: 44 Cummington Mall (ERB), Room 203
Would you like helpful advice, constructive criticism, or just another pair of eyes to look over your fellowship essays? Bring along your drafts and join GWISE on Wednesday, October 15 for our Fellowship Workshop featuring BU fellowship winners and faculty advisors! Our peer and faculty reviewers can answer your questions 1-on-1 and offer valuable suggestions on how to make your essays effective and competitive. This is an especially great opportunity to gather opinions from individuals of diverse scientific backgrounds. Food will be provided. RSVP to the link above! And good luck on your applications :-)
GWISE Corn Maze Social!
Date and Time: Saturday, October 25 from 9:00am-3:00pm
Location: Meet at BU Marsh Plaza
Join GWISE this Saturday (10/25) for a day of farm-filled fun at Connors Farm! There will be reduced admissions and transportation ($10, bring cash) to a 7-acre Corn Maze, Barnyard Animals, Corn Tunnel, Cornball, Cow Milking, Duck Races, Giant Rocking Chair, Giant Tires, Hay Mini Maze, Hayrides, Mechanical Bull, Pumpkin Checkers, Pumpkin Chucker (scheduled shows), Pumpkin Tic Tac Toe, and much more!
Friends of GWISE members are welcome to come, but MUST RSVP. Please RSVP at the link above.
GWISE Teaching and Education Talk: “Contradictory Goals: Challenges for the ‘Ideal’ Classroom” by Dr. Gregg Harbaugh, BU School of Education
Date and Time: Wednesday, October 29 from 5:00pm-6:30pm
Location: LSEB 103
Are you a Teaching Fellow? Are you interested in expanding your teaching skills as part of your professional development? Join GWISE and Dr. Gregg Harbaugh for a presentation on traditional classroom goals that actually impair learning, followed by group discussion and Q&A session. Dr. Harbaugh is happy to field your questions on teaching college students and developing teaching skills, so please bring any you may have. Refreshments will be provided. Please RSVP to the link above.
Dr. Harbaugh’s talk will touch on:
- Assessment and making mistakes
- Valuing and correcting naiveté
- Hand-holding the autonomous learner
Dr. Gregg Harbaugh is a clinical assistant professor of education at Boston University where his research focuses on quantitative methods in survey research, relationships between epistemic belief and the development of expertise, and statistics and mathematics instruction in tertiary institutions. He previously worked as a community college mathematics instructor for over 15 years and served as the Academic Chair of Tertiary & Adult Education at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia, prior to arriving here at Boston University.
GWISE Professional Development Grants
Date and Time: DEADLINE: Friday, November 7
Location: N/A
Interested in attending a professional development workshop or event, but need help paying for registration fees or other expenses? Consider applying for a GWISE Professional Development Grant (PDG)! The PDG Program is designed to help our members benefit from professional development opportunities in the Boston area and beyond by providing funding for participation. We will fund a range of opportunities, including workshops, networking events, memberships in professional societies, and conferences. For example, MASS AWIS, WEST, and MassBio all hold events that might be of interest to graduate students. Please be aware that grants are not intended for travel to scientific meetings where you will be presenting research.
Check out the GWISE website HERE for more information about the PDG Program. If interested, please apply online through this APPLICATION FORM. Our next PDG deadline is Friday, November 7! You will be notified within one week of the application deadline whether you will receive an award. Please contact Allison at allisonq@bu.edu with any questions. Some examples of upcoming events:
- November 12: MASS AWIS Transferrable Skills Workshop: “Moving Outside of Academia: Finding Your Purpose and Achieving Your Goals”
- November 18: Futures in Life Sciences: Finance, Legal, Operations Career Paths
GWISE Book Club: “The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail – but Some Don’t”
Date and Time: Wednesday, November 12 at 12:00pm
Location: ERB (44 Cummington Mall), Room 401
Nate Silver built an innovative system for predicting baseball performance, predicted the 2008 election within a hair’s breadth, and became a national sensation as a blogger – all by the time he was thirty. He solidified his standing as the nation’s foremost political forecaster with his near perfect prediction of the 2012 election. Silver is the founder and editor in chief of FiveThirtyEight.com.
Drawing on his own groundbreaking work, Silver examines the world of prediction, investigating how we can distinguish a true signal from a universe of noisy data. In keeping with his own aim to seek truth from data, Silver visits the most successful forecasters in a range of areas, from hurricanes to baseball, from the poker table to the stock market, from Capitol Hill to the NBA. He explains and evaluates how these forecasters think and what bonds they share. With everything from the health of the global economy to our ability to fight terrorism dependent on the quality of our predictions, Nate Silver’s insights are an essential read.
GWISE has a few copies of the book to loan. If you would like to borrow a hard copy or ebook, please contact Junzi at junzid@bu.edu to borrow one. (Please state whether you prefer ebook or hard copy.)
GWISE Fall Luncheon 2014 featuring Dr. Meena Subramanyam: “Staying the Course: Making Smart Choices”
Date and Time: Friday, November 14 from 12:00pm-1:30pm
Location: Photonics, Room 901 (Colloquium Room)
This year, we are pleased to welcome Dr. Meena Subramanyam as our luncheon speaker. Dr. Subramanyam has been working in the pharmaceutical industry for over 20 years and is now the Vice President of Translational Sciences at Biogen Idec (Cambridge, MA). We are very excited to have her share some of her thoughts with us on how to make the right choices in your scientific career. After the talk, we will adjourn to dessert and discussion. This round-table luncheon is an opportunity for all our members to enjoy lunch, network, hear from community leaders, and to discuss issues related to women in science. We would love to see you there! Please RSVP to the link above.
Dr. Subramanyam joined Biogen in 1998 and has over twenty years of experience in the Biotechnology industry. Her research interests include the mechanistic understanding of the pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and immunogenicity of therapeutics besides identification of clinical biomarkers to enable patient enrichment and/or stratification strategies. Dr. Subramanyam is a member of the Biogen Idec Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Council and the Multicultural Biogen Idec Cultural Diversity network. She currently serves as the Vice Chair of the Biotech Section of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) and is a member of the Biotechnology Industrial Advisory Board of Northeastern University.
GWISE Coffee and Conversations: “Benevolent Sexism and Effective Ally Stories
Date and Time: Tuesday, November 18 from 2:00pm-3:00pm
Location: 110 Cummington Mall, Room 245
Join GWISE for our series, Coffee and Conversations. In this series, we hope to provoke meaningful discussions about issues relevant to women in STEM.
This month we will be discussing two topics: benevolent sexism and effective ally stories. In the workplace, benevolent sexism can be seemingly innocuous, such as opening doors for women, but can also include assigning women less demanding tasks than male colleagues; this can result in giving women fewer opportunities to prove themselves and can hinder their professional growth, along with enabling and justifying some hostile sexist attitudes. If benevolent sexism is not the answer, what are some ways for men (and women) to be good allies for women in the workplace? Please come with your own stories of times you have encountered and/or ineffective allies.
An overview of benevolent sexism from Scientific American can be found here: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/psysociety/2013/04/02/benevolent-sexism/
If you want more details, more academic article (cited in the article above) can be found here: http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/conferences/2013-w50-research-symposium/Documents/glick.pdf
GWISE’s How to Get a Post-Doctoral Position
Date and Time: Wednesday, November 19 from 6:00pm-8:00pm
Location: LSEB B01
Are you at that stage of my PhD when you’re thinking—what do I do after graduation?!? What’s my next step? How do I choose wisely? How do I even find those opportunities? If you are thinking that a post-doctoral position might be the direction you go, join our discussion with current post-docs and faculty. A GWISE-moderated panel will elicit insights and advice from our experts and will be followed by Q&A session, so come prepared will all your post-doc related questions!
GWISE’s How to Market Yourself Online with Lauren Celano
Date and Time: Tuesday, December 9 from 4:00pm-5:00pm
Location: LSEB Room 103 (24 Cummington Mall)
Think networking online is as simple as joining LinkedIn? Think again! Websites like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook can be powerful tools for building and developing a professional on-line personal brand – if you use them correctly. Join us for a seminar with the CEO of Propel Careers, Lauren Celano, to learn how to take advantage of websites like LinkedIn to market yourself and network effectively online. Lauren will discuss how to highlight your background and experiences and identify career opportunities. Lauren will also give us insight into how companies use online tools to identify talent and how to take advantage of this in our job search. No matter what stage you’re at, Lauren can help you make the most of your professional online presence! Light refreshments will be served.
GWISE Holiday Social
Date and Time: Thursday, December 11 from 6:00pm-8:00pm
Location: Photonics 9th Floor, West End Lounge (8 St. Mary’s Street)
Mark your calendars for our annual GWISE Holiday Social this year! Once classes are wrapping up and the holiday season sets in, we are going to gather for friends, food, and drinks. It will be a great way to mingle and forget about classes and research as the semester draws to a close. There will be an ugly sweater contest with prizes for the winners, so start searching for your ugliest holiday sweater! RSVP to the link above!
This year we will also be spreading the cheer to those who may need some help this holiday season. We will have a donation drive for Rosie’s Place and the Boston Children’s Hospital, as well as cards available to write our troops. These opportunities are optional, but if you’re interested in donating items, bring some new toys, games, toiletries, underwear, food, or used winter clothing. Please check the following links for more specific guidelines on the donations. Rosie’s Place Children’s Hospital
GWISE Professional Development Grants
Date and Time: DEADLINE: Friday, December 5
Location: N/A
Interested in attending a professional development workshop or event, but need help paying for registration fees or other expenses? Consider applying for a GWISE Professional Development Grant (PDG)! The PDG Program is designed to help our members benefit from professional development opportunities in the Boston area and beyond by providing funding for participation. We will fund a range of opportunities, including workshops, networking events, memberships in professional societies, and conferences. For example, MASS AWIS, WEST, and MassBio all hold events that might be of interest to graduate students. Please be aware that grants are not intended for travel to scientific meetings where you will be presenting research.
Check out the GWISE website HERE for more information about the PDG Program. If interested, please apply online through this APPLICATION FORM. Our next PDG deadline is Friday, December 5! You will be notified within one week of the application deadline whether you will receive an award. Please contact Allison at allisonq@bu.edu with any questions. Some examples of upcoming events:
- November 18: Futures in Life Sciences: Finance, Legal, Operations Career Paths
- November 18: WEST Career Possibilities – Speed Networking Night
- December 11: WEST Personality Styles and Communication Using DiSC
GWISE Coffee and Conversations: Scientific Authorship
NSF Special Report on gender differences in academia: http://www.nsf.gov/