Women In Science at Evergreen

The Evergreen State College

December Meeting Recap!


¡Hola WISE Folks!

I had an absolutely STELLAR vacation in Mexico, and I hope y’all have also enjoyed your weeks of freedom!

Thanks to everyone for attending our LAST MEETING OF FALL QUARTER! Here’s the minutes from December:

1. Assign Notetaker
2. Introductions – Name, Pronouns, Field of Study
3. Group Logistics / Planning
a. For Next Qtr. & Beyond
4. Tessa’s ILC Presentation *
5. Questions / Concerns / Other Input

* We needed to rearrange this order slightly due to people’s needs to leave early, so it kinda went like: 3a. -> 4 -> 3a.
Continue reading

Career and Internship Fair Highlights

Hey everyone!

For those of you unable to make it to the Career and Internship Fair on Wednesday, I decided to include some of the cool sciencey and women empowerment booths here for y’all to explore from the comfort of your own homes! Hopefully this will result in some of you getting a neat internship or volunteer position with one of these amazing organisations!

American Business Women’s Association (ABWA)

The mission of ABWA is to bring together businesswomen of diverse occupations and to provide opportunities for them to help themselves and others grow personally and professionally through leadership, education, networking, and national recognition.

They meet every third Tuesday of the month from 5:30 – 8:00 pm at the Puerto Vallarta Restaurant at 1400 Galaxy Dr. NE, Lacey, WA 98516. Their November meeting, which will be held on the 21st of this month, will feature a Damsels in Defense safety and self-defense workshop!

Also, they gave me 5 of these Equal Pay for Women bracelets – contact me if you’d like one!

Aloha Aina – Winter on Maui

If you’re looking for a SWEET Individual Learning Contract idea for Winter Quarter, check out Aloha Aina’s Winter on Maui program – you can choose between a one-month or full-quarter program studying permaculture, regenerative ag, climate science, and more!

From their website:

This program is open to all students of any age and from any culture. It will be taught in English, and we welcome students from overseas. We especially welcome any students local to Hawai’i. We welcome students from the Evergreen State College and are working with Evergreen faculty to sponsor students for college credit.

We’ve taken the standard international permaculture certification curriculum and extended it to a month-long integrated studies program that emphasizes hands-on skills, diverse farming techniques, and appropriate technology solutions for low-impact living and working.

I’m seriously jealous of anyone doing this program – there’s nothing better than being in sunny Hawaii during Olympia’s dreary winter months.

Nisqually Land Trust

The Nisqually Land Trust is an independent, private, nongovernmental organization incorporated in 1989 and federally recognized as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation in 1990.

Their mission is to acquire and manage critical lands to permanently benefit the water, wildlife, and people of the Nisqually River Watershed.

Every Wednesday, they have Volunteer Work Parties in various locations from 9 am – 12 pm, where they participate in many restoration projects including tree/shrub planting, plant maintenance, weed control, and more!

They also have an internship opportunity that seems to be date-flexible, and can also probably be adapted for an ILC. The internship involves working with Land Trust staff on land management tasks including habitat restoration, site monitoring, sign/fence/gate installation, habitat maintenance, and more!

Water Education and Technology (WET) Science Center

The WET Science Center is a fun, hands-on place to learn about water. Exhibits and games focus on water conservation, wastewater treatment, reclaimed water use, clean water careers, and protecting the Puget Sound.

They hold several events every month (admission is free!), and are always looking for volunteers and interns (which you can get credit for)! If you’re interested in teaching the next generation about science, this would be a great opportunity for you! Check out their volunteer page here!

Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA)

YWCA‘s mission is to eliminate racism and sexism to advance political, social, and economic status of all women and girls. Their vision is a world where all people are valued, live free from oppression, and thrive in a just society. Sounds familiar, right?

These people are doing some amazing things – they have programs that foster confidence in young girls and encourage them to pursue STEM, as well as a lot of other things. Check out their Make an Impact page to apply to volunteer, or get an Independent Learning Experience intern position! The person at the booth told me their experience as an intern made a profound impact in their life.

I was able to make personal contact with them, and if y’all are interested, we can have them come visit and speak with us about what they do!

Have a great three-day weekend everyone! ✌

Career and Internship Fair This Wednesday!

Hey folks!

The college is holding a Career and Internship Fair this Wednesday, and interested parties should definitely check it out! It’ll be a great opportunity to get in contact with some employers and other people doing real work in your field!

From Evergreen’s website:

Wednesday, November 8, 2017 – 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm

Evans Library Lobby – Second Floor

Students and alumni will have opportunities to network and learn about organizations and career fields. Employers attending will represent both the private and public sectors.

Sponsored By: Academic & Career Advising

Happy Fall Back, everyone! Enjoy that extra hour of sleep – I know I sure will!

Things to Read about Women in Science!

Marie Curie (bottom, 3rd from left) surrounded by men scientists at the Solvay Conference on Physics in 1927.

Hey scientists and feminists (or STEMinists, a term that comes from a blog I recently found about women in science)!

Just popping in again to provide you scholarly scholars with some awesome reading material for and about women in science!

In 2013, Eileen Pollack, who has since published the novel The Only Woman in the Room: Why Science is Still a Boys’ Club, wrote an article for the New York times titled Why Are There Still So Few Women in Science?, where she explores the struggles that many young female scientists face when pursuing STEM degrees and careers. It it she interviews the astrophysics professor Meg Urry, who recounts her experiences with discrimination in college and beyond (see her own article – Diminished by Discrimination We Scarcely See).

Also, if you’re into the more philosophical side of this issue, a great resource is the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, which has TOMES worth of knowledge regarding feminist perspectives of many sciences:

I hope you find all this as exciting and educational as I did. Cheers!

November Meeting Recap

Hey all!

It was great to see everyone again for this month’s meeting, thanks to everyone for another great time!

Here’s a summary of what all we talked about (thanks Gabi for notetaking!):

  • Introductions
    • About 10 people showed up! I was really glad to see everyone.
    • Note: I forgot to take roll, and also didn’t give “new member surveys” to any of the first timers, but I’ll try to remember next time. Bad Tessa.
  • Halloween-ish Themed Discussion: Witches!
    • Trinity had the great idea to bring up ancient witchcraft as a form of science, specifically in the medical field, with tinctures and herbalism and whatnot.
    • I found a really great article about women healers, including witches, by Barbara Ehrenreich, acclaimed author and feminist – read it here!
    • Pauline gave a great brief history of women practicing medicinal herbalism:
      • Since they were unable to be formally educated, women taught themselves and passed down the healing properties of herbs and tinctures.
      • Hildegard von Bingen was a Catholic nun whose medical and scientific texts are still widely respected documents, and she helped establish the teaching of herbalism. Also, Catholic medicinal herb knowledge was applied to making beer, whereas Protestants broke off to make beer with hops instead.
      •  Herbalistic knowledge seems to originate from ancient hunter-gatherer humans, where the women would orally communicate the knowledge of cultivating herbs across generations. Indeed, even in modern culture a lot of agricultural knowledge is retained by women.
      • Were women delegated to this informational gatekeeping because they were held back to keep the social construct of women as domestic housekeepers alive?
  • Official Student Group Stuff
    • For some reason, our initial startup budget of $90 still hasn’t come through, even though I put in the request weeks ago.
    • This might have something to do with our status as a Registered Student Organisation… but since we did all the stuff they wanted (and booked a room for meetings, which only official RSOs can do), I think it’s a problem on Student Activities’ end. Updates to come.
    • Maybe next quarter we should relocate to a room with media capabilities to avoid another projector mishap?
  • Tessa’s ILC: Feminist Epistemologies
    • So far, I’ve read chapters from John Alcock’s Animal BehaviorSexual Selections by Marlene Zuk, and Delusions of Gender by Cordelia Fine. Next on my list is Queer Ecologies by Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands and Bruce Erickson.
    • Keeping in mind that I read the 2001 edition of Alcock’s book, I noticed various expressions of sexist language, many of which were stark enough that I was surprised at their presence in such a commonly used animal behaviour text. One can only hope that these excerpts have been edited out in later versions.
    • Sexual Selections ties in directly with what I noticed in Animal Behavior, and after reading it I was able to make more comprehensive critiques. Zuk describes the various ways in which scientists have described and observed animal behaviour, specifically reproductive behaviour, that have been shaped by our human biases, and suggests ways to be more objective in our search for the truth about what animals really do. It’s a great read, and if anyone is interested in behaviour studies, I highly recommend it!
    • Delusions of Gender is a book that, in my opinion, should be read by all of us – Fine debunks stereotype after stereotype about gender and ability, illustrating that men and women do not differ significantly in spatial reasoning skills or empathetic care, but that societal norms, neurosexism (“it’s biological”), and our own perception of ourselves is what causes more men to be employed in the sciences, why they are paid more than women for the same job, and why so many women turn their backs on their dream career in a male-dominated field. Seriously. Read it.
  • TED Talk: Alyson McGregor – Why Medicine Often Has Dangerous Side Effects for Women
  • Closing Thoughts
    • Since many of us discovered that we’re studying and doing homework in the library almost every day, we decided to try something new – weekly WISE study sessions!
      • Be productive while surrounded by other cool people also being productive!
      • Weekly schedule TBD based on everyone’s availability

Have a great weekend everyone, and keep up the great work!

Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics!

Hey everyone!

Gabi from Matter and Motion brought this exciting opportunity to my attention (post copied from the program’s website):

The APS CUWiP 2018 (American Physical Society Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics) will be held Fri. Jan. 12 – Sun. Jan. 14. For Evergreen students, the preferred site is the University of Oregon (Eugene, OR).

Read all about it at the APS CUWiP at UO Conference Website. Registration deadline is Fri. Oct. 13 at 8:59pm (our local time). The application information page has a link to the application form. The application form is straightforward. You should be able to complete most of it with little difficulty.

  • Under Coverage of Conference Travel, click Yes to “Have you asked your department Chair to cover…” and “Will your department be able to cover…”
  • The Applicant Statement will require some time but it’s between 100 and 200 words. Make sure to keep a copy of your Applicant Statement in your records somewhere.

If you are accepted, there is a $45 registration cost (so you don’t pay until after you are accepted). This will be the only cost to participants (it helps defray lodging, meals, and other conference costs, and Evergreen will pay for your transportation). A registration fee waiver can be applied for if necessary.

If you are interested in this awesome conference, you should definitely apply! Note that the deadline is this Friday – sorry for the late notice, I only heard about this myself last night!

Let me know if you have any questions about this process.

All the best,

Tessa

 

October Meeting Recap

Hey WISE folks!

Here are the minutes for last week’s meeting (thanks to Anchal for taking notes!):

  • I. Introductions
    • a. At least 9 people showed up for our first meeting
    • b. Most of them were new faces! Welcome, everyone.
  • II. WISE Last Year
    • a. We held monthly meetings during which we:
      • i. discussed books or other readings we’d done by feminist authors or were geared toward women in science;
      • ii. watched TED Talks and discussed them;
      • iii. shared our experiences.
    • b. All meetings are summarized here, on our blog! Scroll down for more.
  • III. WISE This Year
    • a. We are officially a student group on campus!
    • b. Fundraising – we are technically a nonprofit so companies get a tax write-off when they donate to us!
    • c. Event plans include:
      • i. Women in Science forum including a panel of Evergreen science faculty;
      • ii. Internship/grad school/job interview workshops with Academic and Career Advising;
      • iii. Bird/plant/mushroom walks around Olympia – no experience necessary!;
      • iv. Kayaking tour in the Sound with Evergreen grad & naturalist Sam Kaviar;
      • v. Coordination with the Astronomy Club and ChaOS (with the possibility of bringing Neil Degrasse Tyson to campus!);
      • vi. WISE study sessions! On campus or off!;
      • vii. Sharing scientific knowledge/projects people are working on to learn about other fields of study;
      • viii. Communicating with national women in science organisations – Association for Women in Science (AWIS), Women in Science and Engineering (WISE), Native American Women in Computing (NAWiC);
      • ix. Scholarships/research funding application workshops;
      • x. Creating a display for the Spring Science Carnival about women and diversity in science;
      • xi. Hanging out together during the January Women’s March
  • IV. Delegation
    • a. Facebook/social media – Trinity graciously offered to keep our Facebook page and online presence alive and updated!
    • b. Artists – Anchal and Trinity are interested in helping design banners and buttons for our group! Thanks so much!
  • V. Flyering
    • a. Several members took some flyers I printed off and posted them up around the CAB, Lab 2, theComm Building, and the CRC!
    • b. I also gave out a bunch of handbills for people to give to interested people in their programs.
    • c. Lab 1, the library, and (maybe) the dorms could still use some WISE flyers! I have a bunch of colour copies still so if you’ve got some time to put flyers up, let me know and I can get them to you!
    • d. Also email me if you’d like the smaller version of the flyer to hand out to your friends!

I couldn’t have asked for a better first meeting, and I can’t wait to see you all again very soon! Have a stellar week 3, everybody!

Cheers,
Tessa

Women in Science at Evergreen 2017-2018!

Hey W.I.S.E. folks!

Welcome back to another amazing year at Evergreen! I hope you all had an excellent summer.

As we get back into the ol’ fall routine, I just want to remind you about all the exciting things we have planned for WISE this year, including (but not limited to, of course):

– Feminism in Science forum featuring women faculty & staff members;
– Job interview & resume building workshops;
– Interesting and exciting new reads;
– Bringing speakers to campus;
– Kayaking in the Sound;
– Birding around Olympia;
– More!

Now that we’re an official Registered Student Organisation (RSO), we can get started planning events and fundraisers, and applying for funding in addition to our monthly meetings. Woohoooo!

The Student Activities fair is today, come check us out! Some fresh new faces are just what we need to get WISE kickstarted again. I made some simply designed buttons in my hurry to prep for the fair, so if you see buttons that say “decolonize science”, or other science fields, that’s us! If you want a little more info about decolonisation of the sciences, I highly recommend you read this awesome article: https://freerads.org/2017/02/28/hood-biologist-explains-how-to-decolonize-all-the-science/ I chose this design because it was quick and thought it would reach a wide audience, BUT if you have a stellar button design idea or even a W.I.S.E. logo, feel free to draft it up and we can definitely make it happen!

On a similar note, I have a big banner that needs some bedazzling! If you have an itching to do some art, the banner lives above the ChaOS cubicle and there’s lots of paints and supplies in the Student Activities office.

Also, if anyone is interested in being a sort of social media specialist, it would be great to keep our Facebook page updated and alive! (I don’t have a Facebook and thus sadly have never seen what it looks like.) A lot of people use Facebook and oftentimes it’s a more effective way to communicate than email.

Check out our new fall flyer! Everyone is welcome to print this image off and post it all around campus. c: Thanks for your continued support for this group, and I hope to see you all soon!

Best,
Tessa

PS – I plan on being a lot more involved with WISE this quarter, as I’m doing an ILC with Pauline Yu that directly relates to our mission, so I’ll be keeping y’all updated with reading material and other little tidbits that I find!

Rachel Carson Forum Tabling

Rachel Carson Forum

Hey everyone!

Just wanted to send a little update about how tabling at the Rachel Carson Forum on April 27th went!

It was a beautiful day, perfect for tabling, and I got to talk to a lot of awesome people interested in our group. About 15 people signed up for our email list, which is awesome! I also made a really sweet sign that we can reuse for future tabling events. Michael also joined me for some of the tabling time, but I’m hoping that in the future these kinds of events can be a group-planned effort!

Also, let me know if you’re interested in adding any decorative elements to our poster – it’s a bit simple at the moment.

Does anyone know of upcoming events that we can table at?

Have a good weekend everybody!

Happy Spring and the next WISE meeting: Wednesday May 3, 1-2pm in Lab 1 3033

Hey WISE people! Please join us for our next meeting on Wednesday May 3, 1-2pm in Lab 1 3033. Everyone welcome!

Helen-Beatrix-Potter-3

Spring is here! Flowers are blooming. Birds are chirping. Spring fungi are sprouting! Here’s a little note about a women scientists who has inspired me to study plants and in particular the magical world of fungi.

96e/49/fott/5629/16 You may have heard of Beatrix Potter, an English writer and  illustrator, famous for her children’s books such as The Tale of Peter Rabbit. Her playful illustrations of talking animals were based on careful observations of the natural world around her.

beatrixpotter_fungi1In addition to her love of animals, Ms. Potter was quite accomplished in the  field of mycology, or the study of fungi.  You can read more about the controversy that unfolded when she proposed a new theory of fungal spore germination based on her microscopic studies here.

 

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