Were you that girl in high school who was smart, in the science classes with the boys, was written off as less capable than her fellow male peers simply because of her gender, or her race, or her background, etc. You no longer have to hide your passion thanks to the Science Club for Girls (SCFG) with a chapter right here on the BC campus. SCFG is here to change that stereotype, to revolutionize the aspirations and dreams of young girls and to turn these dreams into reality. Science Club for Girls is the perfect opportunity for females studying science or teaching at BC that want a way to give back, and to inspire younger girls.
Science Club for Girls (SCFG) is an organization based out of Boston, and run by an amazing group of females that have made the program a household name in the greater Boston Area. The organization was founded on the belief that girls are just as capable as guys when it comes to having successful education/science careers, and promotes science literacy among young girls ages 5-16 (kindergarten-middle school) through their after-school science clubs stationed at various elementary schools in Boston, Cambridge, Newton, etc.
There is one requirement to be part of such a great organization, to share your interest and passion for science with young girls to create a future full of strong and educated women wanting to pursue careers in the sciences. Volunteers run the clubs, usually females ages 18-30 with an interest in science or teaching, and are most frequently undergraduate or graduate students studying a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) subject. Clubs last for 1 semester, and follow a specific curriculum on a topic that SCFG creates for the club based on the age level. For example, Molly Gilligan, the President of the BC Club, has led various clubs in researching the human body, data collection and the environment, green/sustainable chemistry, and architectural and engineering curriculums; and those are just a few of what SCFG has to offer for their members! The clubs are free to join, and often reach out to schools in lower-income neighborhoods. Schools such as Harvard, MIT, BU, and Northeastern, in addition to Boston College, all have club “chapters” on their campus. The chapters are started by girls at these schools who have taken the initiative to raise interest in volunteering amongst their peers, and also provide a site and funding for clubs on their campuses. Last year at BC, Megan Sulciner and Molly Gilligan began the SCFG Boston College chapter as a new club, hoping to do the same.
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The experiences that both the young girls and the college volunteers have are priceless. Molly Gilligan, a member and co-founder of the BC Chapter said, “My experience has shown me an entirely new dimension of the abilities this club can reach. I started as a freshman at BC, teaching a second-grade club at Cambridgeport elementary school the human body curriculum. At the end of the year, I asked them all to write down on a piece of paper what science means to them. One girl, Danielle, wrote “Science club for girls is my life. It means everything to me.” To be able to give a child that, to make them aware that science isn’t something reserved for boys, white people, or rich people-there just aren’t words to describe the kind of fulfillment you feel.”
Interested to join and share your passion for the sciences with young girls? Check out more on the SCFG Orgsync Page. You can also check them out, and find out more about them about the Student Activities Fair on September 6th.
Sources: Molly Gilligan, President of the Boston College Chapter of SCFG
Photo Sources: http://nerdywithchildren.com/s…