While growing up, Jenny Tam, an HMS research fellow in medicine, got an early introduction to science through workshops and other programs in her small hometown in Arkansas. She credits these with influencing her decision to major in computer science and biochemistry as an undergrad and eventually pursue a PhD in chemistry imaging from Tufts University.
The workshops, along with her service as a teaching assistant while a graduate student, inspired Tam in another way, too. She wanted to share her enthusiasm with young people the same way others had done for her. “If it weren’t for someone taking their time out and showing me these cool concepts, I wouldn’t be where I am,” said Tam, a postdoc in the lab of Jatin Vyas at Massachusetts General Hospital.
She found the right opportunity with Science Club for Girls, a Cambridge-based organization that promotes science literacy among girls in kindergarten through 12th grade, who are primarily black and Latina and from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, through afterschool and summer programs. The club also fosters leadership skills in junior high and high school participants and encourages their interest in careers in science, technology and engineering. Tam’s work with the club earned her the 2009 Dean’s Community Service Trainee Award.
When Tam first started volunteering, she taught second graders concepts in light and optics and provided mentorship to a junior assistant—a junior high or high school girl—who would join Tam in the classroom and help her lead the projects and discussions.
More recently, Tam created a workshop program for junior assistants that includes field trips to institutions in Boston, where the girls can see first-hand professionals engaging in various science-related careers and participate in experiments. While they visit places like Draper Laboratory and the Broad Institute, Tam also wanted to make sure the girls realize that careers in science aren’t restricted to laboratories.
“Living in Boston, they know that institutions like Harvard and MIT have really great science programs and labs, and it’s somewhat traditional for them to see some of that programming,” said Tam. “I wanted to show that science is everywhere in their lives, even where they might not realize it.”
One workshop brings the junior assistants to the Cambridge School for Culinary Arts, where they investigate how preparing egg whites in a certain way results in light, fluffy dishes, like soufflés. Inspired by an article about a painting attributed to Jackson Pollock that was eventually found to be a fake, Tam also created a program with the Museum of Fine Arts that provides a hands-on lesson in paint forensics. The content Tam has created involves approximately 40 junior mentors each year.
Tam is taking a break from Science Club for Girls to focus on another potential future scientist—her newborn baby—but she intends to resume her volunteer work in the fall.
