What Got You Excited to Become a Scientist? 1
Check This Out 2
Articles 3-5
September Program Flyer 6
October Program Flyer 7
November Program Flyer 8
Calendar of Events 9

What got you excited to become a scientist? Was it something you did in primary or secondary school? Was it someone who inspired you? What kept you hooked?

When you think back on how you got to where you are, do you remember people who influenced your path? I do. I was not terribly interested in science until I discovered how much fun it could be by participating in two outreach style opportunities in high school. The second of these – a Recombinant DNA course offered through Los Alamos National Laboratory - rocked my world. We cloned some soybean DNA and thought we were super heroes. This new technology was cool and I wanted to be on the wave of the future. The cloning was interesting… but it was the scientists who volunteered to teach the course that made all the difference and made me realize that a career as a scientist could be interesting and fun.

You can make a difference too! Through the Palo Alto AWIS Outreach programs YOU can be the spark generating interest in science. You can help kids of various ages learn about science hands-on and meet scientists with a passion for what they do.

Wouldn’t you like to get involved and have an impact? There are a number of opportunities for you to be involved through Palo Alto AWIS.

1. Outreach Committee

ˇ Education Outreach focuses on secondary school students and younger. Opportunities include hands-on presentations, email mentoring, career days, science fairs, internships, and job shadowing. These opportunities are primarily for, but not limited to, middle and high school students. Education outreach requests are generated by the community needs, primarily requests from teachers, students, schools, and other organizations (e.g. Expanding Your Horizons, Society of Women Engineers, American Association of University Women, and Santa Clara County Alliance of Black Educators). Requests are submitted to the Outreach Committee, who screen the requests and send them out to a database of outreach volunteers, whose privacy is maintained. The volunteers respond if interested and once a match is made, the volunteers receive support from the Outreach Committee in supplies and ideas.

The members of the Outreach Committee divide up the work of screening requests etc. to fit with what works best for them. Katy Korsmeyer has been the point person for the Education Outreach opportunities for the last few years and has done an amazing job!! But her plate is overflowing and she needs help! We desperately need volunteers to help with maintaining the operations of the Education Outreach program. If you are interested, please contact Katy Korsmeyer (kuokaty@scientist.com).

In addition to joining the Outreach Committee, you can add your name to the database of outreach volunteers. The time commitment of a volunteer can be whatever time you are willing to give.

ˇ Young Explorers program, started in 1998 by Katy Korsmeyer, is a hands-on program for pre-school through middle school age children. The program is designed to align with topics appropriate for the specific grade level and class curriculum, include parental involvement, and empower the kids to share their learnings with friends and family. The programs are generally short 30-45 minute presentations and topics for the preschool children have included Owl Pellets, Eye Tricks, Uggly Bugglies, and Superballs. Young explorers is a great opportunity to spark early interest in the fun of discovery and science. Contact Katy Korsmeyer (kuokaty@scientist.com) for more information.

ˇ Scholarships: Palo Alto AWIS gives 1-2 scholarships each year to a student(s) studying science at a local community college (deAnza College or Foothill College). The scholarship committee reviews the applications, selects the scholarship winner(s), and hosts the winner(s) at the annual NCC-AWIS awards banquet. Volunteers for the scholarship committee are always welcome. If you are interested, please contact Ann Reisenauer (reisen@cmgm.stanford.edu).

2. Mentoring Committee

The mentoring committee provides mentoring to women graduate students. Currently the mentoring committee activities are focused on graduate students at Stanford, but any graduate students are welcome. The mentoring committee, with the help of student representatives, recruits from 32 departments at Stanford. There are four mentoring meetings, during which the students learn about mentoring and networking and identify a mentor that they would like to work with. Once the mentor and student are paired, the level of interaction depends on the need of the student and the relationship between mentor and student. Generally ~30-50 students were paired with mentors. The first mentoring meeting for this year is on October 17, 2001. Please contact Susan Bernhard (sbernhard@onebox.com) or Fong-Yih Bih (fybi@pacbell.net) if you are interested in joining the mentoring committee or becoming a mentor.

There are so many opportunities to be involved with education outreach and mentoring. For example see the article in this newsletter regarding opportunities to mentor high school students in San Jose. Another example is MentorNet, a nonprofit electronic industrial mentoring network for women in engineering and science. Check out their website (http://www.mentornet.net/).

It takes only a few hours a month for YOU to have a significant positive impact on the life of a high school junior. Use your experience in industry and as a professional to mentor a student from East San Jose. Communicate with your student by phone, e-mail or in person – your student needs an adult friend who is not a parent or teacher and who can help her or him learn about the biotechnology industry. The program concentrates on students who will benefit most from enriching experiences in their lives – experiences that will convince them that learning is to be valued.

The Biotechnology Academy has matched high school juniors with professionals from the biotech industry, Stanford and Kaiser Permanente. Mentors meet with students once a month from October to June. The goals of the program are 1) to make a connection between the world of work and education and 2) to have fun while accomplishing the first goal.

This year’s program begins October 4 from 6-8 pm with dinner, mentor training, and fingerprinting. Then on October 24, you will meet with your student for the first time, again with dinner for everyone.

Sound interesting? Contact Mary Metz for more information at 408-347-4112 or metzm@exchange.esuhsd.org. 

The American Cancer Society will sponsor a 5-mile walk in Golden Gate Park on Sunday October 28th to raise money for Breast Cancer Research. The ‘Making Strides Against Breast Cancer’ walk is a great way to support the search for a cure. Last year over 100,000 people participated and raised over $1 million. Your AWIS chapter was a part of this success. Palo Alto AWIS members Fong-Yih Bih and Susan Bernhard were among the crowd of folks who strolled through the park on a sunny, warm and surprisingly windless autumn morning. If you would like to donate or walk this year, please contact Susan Bernhard. Kids and strollers and pets on a leash are welcome. This is not an aerobic adventure, but it's fun and for a good cause. (susan_bernhard@baxter.com)

Yoplait sells yogurt with pink lids each fall to help raise money for breast cancer research. The ‘Save Lids to Save Lives’ campaign generates matching funds – 10 cents per lid- and the goal this year is to raise $1 million. Look for the special cartons, mail the lids back to the manufacturer to support a health issue that affects each of us.

Join Governor Gray Davis, First Lady Sharon Davis and more than ten thousand women on Thursday, October 11, 2001 at the Long Beach Convention Center for the California Governor's Conference for Women. This non-partisan forum is the largest and most prestigious event for women in the country offering access to outstanding speakers and the tools necessary to build a stronger social and economic future.

A partial list of keynote and featured speakers includes: Connie Chung, Co-anchor, ABC News 20/20 Sherry Lansing, CEO of the Motion Picture Group of Paramount Pictures Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ph.D, award-winning author and business leader Naomi Judd, winner of six Grammy Awards, author and national radio talk show host.

For registration information please visit www.cgcw.org or call (650) 548-2424.

If you would like to attend, please contact Victoria Auer at the Center for Gender Equity at vauer@genderequity.ucsf.edu or 476-5222. If ten people from UCSF attend, we can secure a reserved table (given that 10,000 women are expected, this would be a great advantage!). Please be prepared to send us your registration form and check by August 24, 2001.

We encourage interested members of the campus community to attend and register through the Center for Gender Equity.

Mills Women’s Leadership Institute, The National Council for Research on Women, and the Women’s Bureau of the Department of Labor are sponsoring "Women Leading the Way in Science, Engineering,m Technology, Arts and Creativity (SETAC). The symposium is taking place Friday, October 9, and is located at the intersection of highways 580 and 13. It runs from at 8:30 AM till 4:00 PM.

The symposium will be presenting models of leadership, featuring women at the intersections of science, technology and the arts. There willl be discussions on new fields for women’s talents, and paths for girls to achieve equity. It will also address diversity, multiculturalism and gender equity in access to achievement in SETAC.

For more information, write to wli@mills.edu or phone 510-430-2019. You can also visit the symposium website at www.mills.edu/wli.home.html.

The student reps and the co-chairs of the Mentoring Committee, Fong-Yih Bih and Susan Bernhard are hosting a wine-and-cheese reception - a party for prospective and returning mentors on Tuesday Sept the 25th from 6:30-8:30p at Susan's house in Menlo Park. Please come if you can. This informal event is to thank all those who have helped us in the past as well as to encourage and reward those folks who think they can help AWIS again as Mentors this year. We would love it if you could come! Please RSVP to Susan by Monday September 24th at susan_bernhard@baxter.com or call 510 723-2094. This special event will be the Tuesday following the regular monthly chapter meeting (9/20), and it will be announced at that time.

MENTORING PROGRAM 2001-2002

The student reps for Mentoring got together for a brainstorming session recently, and the ideas they generated guarantee a wonderful season. The student reps this year are Sarah Reybuck, Lisa Wong and Jennifer Nyman. Come join us for meetings on October 17 and mid-November (TBA). There you will meet other mentors and get to know the grad student who would like to be your protegee.

Fong-Yih Bih and Susan Bernhard are the co-Chairs of the Mentoring Program this year. We want to recruit 50 new volunteer mentors, and we need 5-6 volunteers to be on the Committee. If you are interested in being a Mentor, please fill out the form that is on our website, and come to the the Wine and Cheese reception this month.

Some members have asked what Mentoring is all about. This topic will be addressed by a speaker at our first meeting in October. However, there are probably as many answers as there are mentors you could ask. To me a key description is 'partnering'. Mentoring frequently means little more than a willingness to be available, to listen and give feedback to a grad student. Or share in her joy as she passes her qualifying exams, gives her first poster talk, or makes a successful defense of her research proposal. The time requirement is flexible and negotiable. There will be four formal Mentoring meetings this year, two in Fall and two in Spring. Beyond that, a few emails back and forth each month may be enough to keep the relationship going. A lot depends on the particular student you partner with and her needs. It is definitely satisfying to get to know a young woman just starting out in her career, to share your experience and have a chance to network with other mentors. See the webpage for more details (www.pa-awis.org).

"Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained."

Marie Curie, Polish-French chemist

The Spring Quarter Board meeting of the Palo Alto chapter of AWIS was held at Katy Korsmeyer's home on June 13th. After we dined together on Indian food the meeting was brought to order by Annette Lewis, President.

Committee chairs presented summaries of activities for the year 2000-2001. These summaries will be submitted, along with our Treasurer's report, as an annual report to National AWIS.

Projected budget requests from Outreach, Scholarship and Mentoring were given to Annette to send to NCC, the fundraising arm of the Bay Area AWIS chapters. The balance in our chapter checking account in June was $1591.80, a bit lower than usual. No dues had been received from National AWIS since March.

Networking is important because it helps each of us keep up to date with new developments in our field. Our network can tell us of changes and trends, of meetings, mergers and new opportunities. We can learn from others about new techniques, or companies that may provide services we need. Conversely, we may tell others about job openings, and our network may be a source of personal referrals to help us fill those vacancies.

Certainly, having industry contacts is important to scientists in academia. Students and postdocs who want to transition into industry following their training, need to know people in companies they can query for information, and the first step is knowing how to build a network of contacts. Scientists already working in industry need colleagues with whom they can bounce ideas or questions about technical issues, hiring, or career development topics.

On a personal level, a network can be a great help. Some issues are sensitive, and need the perspective of someone not directly involved. For example, networking can help one develop options for resolving a difficult interpersonal or work-related problem.

Networking is a personal and profesional skill that has many potential upsides. As a skill, it can be learned and practiced, and AWIS meetings are great opportunities to do that practice. How? Join us on September 20th for a special presentation on 'Building a Network'.

Thanks so much. Thank you for your participation and support.

Women and girls are making progress in scientific professions and in education, respectively, over the last two decades, but some of these gains have stalled or "eroded," in recent years, says a report by the National Council for Research on Women (NCRW) that was funded, in part, by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The NCRW studied a range of issues, statistics and ongoing programs to evaluate how women are being assimilated into scientific and engineering professions, and how young women are responding to educational opportunities. Its report, "Balancing the Equation: Where Are Women and Girls in Science, Engineering and Technology?" reveals that "despite over two decades of an expanding pipeline," the percentage of women holding scientific leadership positions in some fields is still in the single digits.

"The report also shows us examples of efforts that have sparked enduring change, and reveals that a piecemeal approach doesn't work. We must change the system itself," said NSF director Rita Colwell. A new NSF program, ADVANCE, she said, focuses on core leadership issues that will support system-wide changes to provide a more positive climate for women to pursue academic careers in science and engineering.

The Alfred P. Sloan and Patrina Foundations and the Prentice Hall School Division also provided funding for the council's report. [Bill Noxon]

For excerpts of the report, see: http://www.ncrw.org/research/iqsci.htm

Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!

AWIS-PA September Meeting

"How to Build Your Professional and Personal Network "

Dr. Aparna Desai
McKinsey and Company
Outplacement Training, Career Counseling

The Featured Speaker for our kick-off meeting will be Dr. Aparna Desai,. Aparna Desai got her PhD in Developmental Neurology from Stanford University in 1999. While in graduate school, Aparna was a student representative for the AWIS Palo Alto Mentoring Committee. After graduate school, Aparna chose a career away from the bench. She joined the SF office of McKinsey and Company where she did high tech and biotech strategy management consulting. Currently, Aparna does outplacement training and career counseling. Networking is part of her life! Come learn the skills and secrets of a consummate networker.

• Networking isn’t just for business women. It’s essential for students and scientists too.
• Networking isn’t just for during your job-search. It’s a skill you can practice, get better at, and use in your personal life as well.
• Networking is about building community. Learn how to build a ‘tree’ of contacts, keep it pruned and make it grow

Thursday, September 20th
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Xerox PARC Auditorium
3333 Coyote Hill Rd, Palo Alto