UA SRP Trainees Emalee Eisenhauer and Lydia Jennings Mentor STEM High School Students
May 30, 2017
University of Arizona (UA) Superfund Research Program (SRP) trainees Emalee Eisenhauer and Lydia Jennings partnered this academic year with the UA Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) program to mentor aspiring high school and undergraduate students through the 2016-2017 Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) Pipeline Mentorship Program. The Pipeline Mentorship Program, founded in 2015, provides a peer mentorship environment that encourages young women with an interest in STEM fields to develop necessary career skills and build an institutional support network to help them reach their goals.
The Pipeline Mentorship Program is structured into bimonthly meetings over the course of the academic year, and brings together participants for fundament career development workshops on topics ranging from resume writing to finding research opportunities and learning to network. Eisenhauer and Jennings have served as small group leaders in the program, facilitating discussions during the career development seminars and sharing their personal experiences in education and the workforce. The program provided a platform for these trainees to share their research and outreach experiences with the UA SRP to early career students interested in environmental research.
“Meeting the motivated and passionate women, both leading and participating in the program, has been incredibly inspiring. I hope in the future to find new ways to contribute to the outreach that WISE supports, encouraging a diverse and inclusive future in STEM,” Eisenhauer said of the experience. Jennings added, “It’s been fun to be able to share our passion for science, our experiences of what has helped us or been stumbling blocks along our career trajectory. I really believe in the power of mentorship, and know I wouldn’t be where I am today without it.”