Meandering Update on How to Finish Strong

There is a lot to say when you are an intermittent blogger, and most of it, I probably won't take the time to express fully. Even with the moving target of trying to wrap up this effort by my 31st birthday (in July), I'm still trying to figure out what I have to do to make it ALL the way. There is about $4500 or 136 hours left to raise. I'm learned a lot in the last year, and certainly enough to know that while it is acheiveable, I need a plan.

Another one of the things that I have learned is that I really enjoy charity projects when they feel comfortable and relevant, more than some big symbolic effort. Namely, I would much rather have to sit down and plan a menu and shopping for 30(!) homeless youth than go to some one off gala type event. There are fundraiser's for organizations happening all the time, but I would rather have a few groups that I care deeply about and know how to impact positively. (Obviously, this does not include running 5ks.) Friends of Youth has been a great organization for me to support because their mission is good, I feel like it has changed the way I think about my own community, and it lets me do something I enjoy doing anyway (cooking with my family).

One of the reasons that I need a plan, however, is that I am expecting to change where I am spending my volunteer time soon. At the end of the month, I will be passing the torch at HiveBio. While I hope to have some ongoing relationship there, I have found I need a more free time and headspace than that position has afforded me. I'm also planning to stop volunteering with AWIS, in an effort to focus my professional networking on organizations that will connect me with professionals in my field. For recordkeeping, the two major sources of my volunteer hours will be ramping down quickly, and I still need to get something in place to meet that last $4500.

Always the inspiration, today my little sister is participating in a Kidney Walk to support kidney patients . It's the type of event that doesn't require lots of preparation, but can be fun with a team, and gives a clear direction for how to get people to help you out. Send money here. Get your friends involved- for the multiplier effect. I'm planning to sign up for at least one fundraiser 5K this summer, which should fill that niche for me (and hopefully a small team). But I'm also going to need some large-ish volunteer projects. The challenge will be balancing my new sentiment that volunteer work is impactful on the volunteer- what you spend time on becomes who you are- with my hope of getting more people involved, and the logistical limitations of trying to pull this all off by July 21. I would happily accept ideas for how to make this happen at any time.

A Day of Service

I didn't used to get Martin Luther King Jr Day off. I have no particular habits for this day (today), but last year I learned that many people take the day as a day of service. It's an awesome way to memorialize a man who worked so hard for peace. 

"Life's most persistent and urgent question is: 'What are you doing for others?'" 
-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

This year, in my current job, I do get Martin Luther King Jr Day off, and I thought I would actually participate in a service project. You know, try out a new organization, meet new people, learn about a new issue.

I emailed my family and asked who would want to tag along, and through the United Way my Dad found a school that was looking for some help with a construction project and that sounded just right to him. My mom opted to go with him, which is lucky for this school, because the two of them are like a construction machine when they get going. I ended up not being able to participate, but they stopped by afterwards to let me know how it went (and get some help on another project my Dad is working on for me. Thanks Dad). They spent 8 hours (!) climbing ladders, sawing framing and generally building windows. Awesome. 16 hours added to the thermometer... and just like that the 70% mark was crossed.

I still want to find an excise to join someone else's service project, but in the meantime, I've got another date for dinner at Friend's of Youth, an both AWIS and HiveBio events on the calendar.

We just surpased $20,000

Just when I was starting to wonder if I could get the focus to finish out this project, I am feeling quite renewed. My mom reminded me about all the OTHER giving that has taken place in the last month (who can resist the $10 bag of groceries that Safeway just gives to the foodbank. It's so easy!), I made a big ol' pot of chili for the shelter, and I spent Sunday in the lab getting ready for some very exciting classes and Voila! $20,000 mark.

Actually, today's total is $20,206.

What's nice about a project like this is that there are milestones. It's trackable, and fairly obvious to me that progress is being made. Big numbers just keep rolling past! There is less than a third of the project left.

I am, perhaps, ready to let go of the illusion that this project might ... how do I put this?... make sense to anyone else. I've had a hard time explaining why I am doing this, what I am doing, how other people should do this with me. The number ($30,000) is arbitrary. My particular way of measuring it is arbitrary. I've come to realize that I'm not the sort of person who is going to organize pub crawls, charity events, or major work parties where I need buy-in from a lot of people anyhow. Although it's not what I expected at the outset, it's actually pretty wild to see what a big difference a relatively small number of people can make without a lot of major sacrifice. No one is $20,000 in the whole. My dad has become a regular blood donor. My brother has a standing tutoring appointment at a middle school. My friends were easily convinced to run some charity 5Ks with me. I got to spend some evenings cooking with my mom. And good work was done.

 I'm trying to think of something cool to do on MLK Day this year. I like the notion of a day of service, and I'm hoping I can find an excuse to try something new. More updates as that comes together.

Update: More time than money

When I first started this project, I had this real desire to get involved in my community. I'd been living in Kirkland for a year, and I pretty much don't run in to people I know there. Maybe this is nostalgia from growing up in a small town, but I couldn't feel like my surroundings were familiar until the faces in it were too. Of course, what counts as 'my community' seems to be in flux a lot. The lab is across the lake, my old office was in Queen Ann, my house is in Totem Lake. Some of the things I have been working on have really helped a lot. For starters, getting my family and friends involved with me has been really cool, whether we've been running 5Ks or making meals. Learning more about these causes has also helped me to feel grounded in this project. I don't think of those punks at the mall as punks, I think of them as homeless kids who need my help. My homeless kids.

As always, having a real life does get in the way of my fantasy. This is in part because I don't have infinite time to be attending meetings, meeting with people and building relationships, even when the cause really matters. I've been to various Friends of Youth Offices several times, but I 1) don't know anyone's name there, and 2) don't run in to those people elsewhere. I don't know the names of a single person who I've served dinner to. This is fair, considering how little time I actually spend there. The point is, now that we've passed the halfway mark, and I've got a bit of momentum and some time to think about what this whole crazy affair is about, I feel like the real, personal connection is still missing.

This might be because opening the lab took a heap of time, and a lot of effort that involved either working alone in the lab, or sitting at home on my computer. I can rationalize that I think this is important, long term work. But man, I'd really like to spend more of my time with other people. Another crunch on my time has been working. I can't pretend I was working more than most full time people, but with an hour commute on both ends, it really takes a bit out of the day.

The update that I am choosing to view as good news for now is that I have completed my contract, so I suddenly have a lot more free-time. Yes, I will be spending the bulk of it looking for my next job, but the last time I was looking for a job, I felt terribly isolated and unimportant. Making phone calls and submitting job applications that never get answered can do that to a person. These are both feelings that charity work can help to alleviate, so I'm hoping to dedicate some of my time to moving along this lofty goal while I have more time than money. This can hopefully help me to get in touch with the people in my community, which will help me to feel like I belong here.

HiveBio Moves

Over the weekend, HiveBio relocated. If you have not ever moved a lab, you may not be aware of the vast numbers of weird shaped, fragile objects that tend to get deeply packed into a lab.  The old lab space was about 300 sq feet, and filled every inch of a 17 foot uHaul. When you move a lab, you always start thinking- 'this will be easy, everything is basically already in boxes,' and this slowly progresses into 'how are there so. many. boxes?!'  I knew this was coming. I also know that our executive board (ie, the people who would actually be doing the move) was only half available on the day of the move. We needed more hands, and preferable some with burly biceps attached. So, I called on some old friends.

I sent along a very pathetic request for help to my high school friends who live in the area, and JJ and Paul were both unable to invent an excuse and actually offered to help. They probably had no idea what they were getting into- from their arrival to the time we left the new lab space, they spent 7 hours hauling boxes out of the old space, into the the new building (down 3 flights of stairs) and into the new space. By the time the last box was unloaded, I felt like I'd been holding them hostage. Seriously, "I owe you a beer" does not even begin to cover it.

Moving the lab had been a major source of anxiety for the entire organization- the new space is great: great location, great space, great opportunity. But we needed to quickly transition from the old space to the new space AND get functional so we can start paying rent like responsible citizens. Multiple trips, storing boxes over night in the truck, we don't have time or finances for any of this. In my mind, this was spiraling into a number of other tragic situations- the truck gets impounded for illegally parking too long while we try to fill it, all the contents are destroyed by poor packing in the drive across town, the truck gets stopped and harassed for looking like the other definition of "mobile lab" ... But, none of this happened. We were inhumanly efficient. We didn't even have to stand around and shout at each other (another common tactic I've seen in moves). It was awesome.  I'm terribly grateful to both Paul, JJ and of course my dear husband for showing up and blowing a beautiful Saturday to help me bring science to the people.

And, and... since the move actually happened, we get to announce our opening party! I love parties! Please join us at the space Oct 18 to see what HiveBio is all about.

Another reason I am so grateful... After this weekend, we smashed the 50% mark! Since we had a multi-person multiplier for the day, the thermometer LEAPed up for 52% of the goal! Unbelievable!

Guest Post: Austin Partners in Education

From time to time, I' like to hear from the folks I've coerced into helping me with this goal. My big brother was one of the first people to jump on board with this project, and he spent the spring volunteering in Austin public schools as a math tutor/educator. Here are his thoughts on the volunteer experience he has had at Austin Partners in Education.

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My favorite destination for my volunteer money or time has always been education. As near as I can tell, it solves every problem. It lifts people from poverty, helps them make better decisions, opens up opportunities for further growth, and helps build communities in healthy and sustainable ways. It solves energy problems, medical problems, social problems, and even educational problems! It's the best. Education is really just the best. We should do more of it.

Education has also been the first area where I've donated more time than money this year. It's been a long, long time since I volunteered any time, but after looking for a while for a reason to periodically get out of the house, I stumbled upon a volunteer opportunity that was perfect for me. It involved helping teach kids math, one of my favorite and best fields. It was near my work, near lunchtime, and afforded me the opportunity to not only get out of the house for a while, but also work with kids who could really use my help.

The volunteer opportunity I tried was called Austin Partners in Education. It's a pretty big organization, boasting something like 2000 volunteers. Once a week, I would go in and work in very small groups (nearly one-on-one) with kids who were having trouble with math. It was all pretty straightforward stuff, but getting to do teaching, math, and volunteering all at once? Sounded like a great time to me. What they mostly needed from potential volunteers wasn't a lot of crazy experience or anything, mostly just enthusiasm and a willingness to be patient with kids who needed it. I could do that. (Hint: so can you!)

For the most part, it wasn't too bad. I was perfectly willing to give them a lot of patience: my usual math student was less than 2 at the time, and he still hasn't picked up counting yet. The fact that it took the other students a couple of tries to pick complex fractions was a welcome change of pace. Each day we'd do a little more work, sometimes offering encouragement as they worked, sometimes dragging them through the exercises, and sometimes failing even to do that. But you do what you can, and though the kids I was working with were in middle school, and already too cool to appreciate anything, we were continuously reminded by the teachers that they could really see improvement in their students. And the kids did appreciate it, even if they didn't say so with, you know, words. Or actions. Or facial expressions.

I enjoyed it, and being as school is starting up soon I'm planning on volunteering again when the program starts up for the new year. Every year there's a new crew of kids that need help with math, and by Jove! I just might be the incredibly dorky math nerd to help them. If this sounds like the sort of thing you might want to try, here's some little tips you may want to consider:

1. Bring your own pencils and/or pens. The kids often don't have their own, or are willing to fake it so they don't have to work.
2. Bring neat stuff. I got a lot of mileage out of my cool and unique backpack.
3. It's okay to talk about your interests, especially if it's stuff like video games or (hurk) pop music that they can get into as well. You have to let them come out of their shell in their own way.
4. But do remember that you are an authority as well, and it's your main goal to get them to do work. You can't force them to do anything, of course, but you might be surprised how well telling them 'it's time to work' will just make it so.

Now get out there and change some lives!

HiveBio: Where did all the hours go?

I should have started explaining all the time I've been spending on HiveBio things earlier, but here is the long overdue update. In March, I heard about an enthusiastic group of people who wanted to start a biohackerspace: a community lab where people can come to explore biology by doing experiments and collaborating on projects. Lab spaces like this have been successful in other cities, especially areas with a biotech community, so it seems like time that Seattle had our own. A couple years ago, I went to a conference called "Design, Make, Play" where professionals in non-formal and informal education got together to share best practices, so I was quickly convinced that 1) This is a great way for people to get to experience science, 2) this type of community can be successful, despite the challenges of starting a lab with a tiny budget.

I pitched in a few bucks to the Microryza campaign, and decided to go to one of their meet-ups. I had met with one of the founders, but I wanted to know what type of people were involved in the project. At the first meeting, I introduced myself as someone who had a lot of bench experience, but had no interest in designing my own research projects anymore. Since I'm a curriculum writer though, I might be able to lend a hand with education? A few weeks later, I was approached to the be the Executive Director of their Education Programs. Although this sounded like something I should jump at the chance to do, I hesitated. What did they think education would look like at HiveBio? And did they know that I've only been thinking seriously about instructional design for about a year now? And that I am NOT supremely well connected to the science community in Seattle? The fun and scary thing about hanging around with hackers is that they necessarily have crazy ambition, are used to working with very limited resources, and are successful because they make unexpected connections. So yes, they wanted me to build a program from scratch, but there weren't too many constraints, and they have basically started aligning all the key people of Seattle to the project already. This outsized ambition in contagious.

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As an aside, when I finished graduate school, I spent some time volunteering that Carnegie Science Center of Pittsburgh. It was super fun, but it felt more like fun than working for a good cause. When I mentioned this to my supervisor, he corrected me. No, actually, providing students the opportunity to develop a passion for science is a matter of economic equality. Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) jobs pay more than the average American job, women in STEM have a smaller pay gap with men, and the same is true of minorities who work in STEM. In fact, there is a great need for STEM workers, which can be be more easily filled by increasing the number of talented women and minorities working in STEM. Further, having diversity in STEM is was provides us the opportunity for innovations that will solve problems like world hunger, homelessness, climate change, and our changing energy needs. Basically, if you worry about the future of our youth, giving them access to STEM can help them to level their own playing field. At Design, Make, Play, I saw research that demonstrated that learning in informal and nonformal learning environments plays an important role in cultivating an interest and pathway to success in STEM, and this liberated me to believe that the hours I was spending shooting rockets with 4 year-olds was actually making a long term difference.

This encouraged me to find a position in nonformal or informal learning environments, but nothing presented itself. However, during that time, I found work developing content for a nontraditional, formal learning environment, and I thought this might be a good step. It also left me with plenty of time to pursue my outlandish philanthropy goals.
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Since I agreed to lead Ed programs at HiveBio, there has been a lot to do. There are meetings with the leadership, and potential instructors. There are documents to create (guidelines for instructors, protocols to format), and plans to create. One of my greatest feats so far has been securing the donation of some unwanted equipment from my office, which was moving to a new, smaller location. The old computers and office equipment I estimated had a value of about $1500 for the thermometer. All the computers had password protected copies of office on them, so my husband spent hours wiping them, reinstalling Linux, and assessing the value of their respective parts. I am going to be spending much more than 20 hours a month working on this program.

I'm really excited to have somewhere to apply my ambition, and I'm excited about what HiveBio will do for the community.

If you are excited about this too, I highly recommend you join us for our lab warming party, August 17 at HiveBio. (Update: Soon)

It's July Already

Well, I hope it's obvious to everyone else that the pubcrawl things was a bit too ambitious. I'd really like to do something like this in the future, but a lot of other things piled up ahead of that, and I of course made it all much too complicated to get a lot of participation. Which is actually for the best, since on these beautiful summer days, it's hard to picture myself celebrating my birthday in a bar. With crowds of strangers. Ick.

But, I still want to do something to further this goal for my birthday. Which is later this month. (Eek!) I'm pleased to say that my anxiety about the pending day (July 21, I hope to hear from you on FB) is more related to meeting this ambitious goal than it is to feeling old or something. I don't have time for feeling old- I'm wracking up volunteer hours!

Hopefully after a weekend retreat with my inspiring mother-in-law, I'll have some insight into what might do-able in the little time that I have left to pull something off. At the very least, I'll be directing dollars to a charity and asking you to donate blood- so start beefing up your iron levels!

And maybe I'll have time to write about my new (volunteer) position as the Executive Director of Education with the community lab HiveBio.

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Goal update- Shout out to my old nieghbor Ruth whose support of her friend's MS bike-a-thon pushed us over the 25% mark. Woot!

Letter from Friends of Youth

Sometimes I worry that I am not doing a very good job of explaining why I am doing this, or why it matters.

Perhaps this letter from Friends of Youth can help to explain it. 

"Your generous dinner contribution... provided a hot and healthy meal to young people in a time of crisis. Your gift helps our guests take their first steps on their journey from homelessness to stability and safety." 

Yup, my pulled pork provided a transition to stability and safety.

What Makes Volunteer Work Easier?

After than initial excitement about launching this project, I've been faced with the multitude of ways that this si going to be a formidable challenge.  I don't have infinite time or money, and you can't just insist that people you know support your crazy efforts, especially if it requires time or money.

That being said, I've also started to crack the secrets of making this work.  Well, they aren't so much secrets as they will be key to my plan.

1) Do things you like.  It's hard to commit your limited free time to anything, but finding something that is fun, and you might have done anyway, is a pretty great way to get in some volunteer work.  That's part of the reason I'm enjoying cooking for Friend's of Youth, I like cooking, and it happens to really help some people in need. Awesome.  It's a similar deal with running a 5K- you might have gone for a run anyway, why not pitch in a few bucks to support a good cause while going for a run somewhere new?

2) Time is valuable.  Part of this reflects how I set up the project, but it will be much easier for me to find 900 hours to volunteer than $30,000 to give away.  My time is valuable, and there are a number of people looking for someone to show up at some event and help out. If you have the time to spare, it means a lot, both to the organization you are helping, and I think actually participating feels more worthy.

3) Use the multiplier.  Volunteering can be a little intimidating if you go alone- meeting strangers, doing new things. I'm much happier doing that sort of thing if I've brought a friend.  And it's a lot easier to rack up hours when you've got friend matching you hour for hour.  How do you think the Science Fair turned into such a huge event? (Thanks Karen!)

Consider yourselves warned, I'm going to be egging on my family and friends to come and do fun things with me in the name of charity.

Dinner to the Landing

Matt and I took dinner to The Landing for the Friends of Youth Shelter again tonight. Dinner for 15 homeless young adults (18-24).  Our first time was pretty eye opening, actually.  I'm not sure what I thought to expect, but I wasn't exactly prepared.

The Landing is, during the day, a youth center or something.  It's clearly a space that is used for other things; it's an office in a strip mall.  And at night time, when we showed up at 8:30 to deliver dinner, they start dragging mattresses out to cover the floor. We arrived a few mintures early to get assembled- I'm not sure if I was afraid that the yuppie guests would diss my cooking, or that starving hoards would try to steal my donation, but mostly I wanted to get it right. When we arrived (at the office space in the strip mall not far from the movie theatre we sometimes go to), there was no one there.  I wondered if I had brought too many lasagnas.  We dodged the mattresses being dragged out by the (college aged) volunteers, and assembed dinner in the kitchen.

While we were arranging salads and things, people started to knock at the door.  On the door, there is a schedule: 8:30 Line-up and Registry. 8:45 Lottery and Dinner....  What I like about this shelter/organization is that they make an effort to connect people to other services that they might need.  What wigs me out about this shelter is that they might not have space for everyone who needs it. And that the Vista Volunteer who is barely 24 might have to tell someone his own age that there is no bed and he has to sleep in the street. That thought made the experience all too real.

I had briefly pondered staying for dinner- acknowledging the humanity of my neighbors who just don't have a home tonight, breaking bread and sharing encouragement.  But I couldn't do it.  I was struck by the need, the complete need, that would drive a person to an emergency shelter- you have no home, no family and friends to land on, no money to make your own way, and possibly no clear path to change that.  In the few hours (~12) that people stay at the shelter they are warm, fed, and connected with people who might be able to help them solve the very real problems they are facing.  Making small talk with someone who is self-conscious about her cooking is probably not the best use of anyone's time.

BUT, having a warm meal provided frees up the staff/volunteers to focus on helping the people who show up. And providing a meal as just some private citizen is a gesture to say that I still think of these people as my neighbors (even if my notoriously awkward ability to converse with strangers prevents me from being social in these circumstances).  Bringing dinner feels like the best way for me to help- not that it is all the help that these people need, but it is probably the best thing that I can do.

State Science Fair!

I just got back from a great weekend of hanging out with friends and SCIENCE!  This weekend was the state science fair WSSEF in Bremerton, WA.  It's two days of all ages science (K-12).  More than a thousand projects were entered from all around the state, and more than a hundred judges were there to critique and appreciate the work of those students.

Two of those judges were my friend Karen and me.  We saw some great projects, we met some great students, and generally had a good time.  I'll hope to get back to why this type of volunteering matters soon, but I wanted to updated the totals today.

Science fair day is a long day for students.  Anxious enthusiastic students wait for friends, family, and most nerve wrackingly, judges to talk about their projects. The state fair is a two day event, with judges ranking students, then comparing rankings and evening assigning special awards.  I think I talked to 9 projects on Friday, and 12 on Saturday.  This is how Karen and I wracked up nearly 24 volunteer hours over the weekend.

The coolest part about science fair is getting to talk to students to encourage their interest in things they are already enjoying.  It's really impressive how much time and effort parents, teachers and mentors are able to put into this type of event.  When Karen and I left, a dedicated group of volunteers was stuffing award packets- a process that would probably take hours as the night wore on.  It's a great feeling of community, and I'm so glad we got to help out!

Feeding the Hungry

Tomorrow, I am making dinner for 15 homeless youth. I'm so nervous/excited.

Several of the projects I've been able to support so far have been really fun.  So much fun, that arguable, it's not much of a sacrifice to help them out.  Yeah, spend a day talking with students about thier awesome science?  Eat girl scout cookies?  Yeah, I'm a real hero.  But I was looking for a way to get involved with some issues that are frankly harder to deal with.  Feeding the hungry.  Giving shelter to the poor.  I learned really quickly that because there is no easy fix for homelessness, organizations that deal with these issues need a real commitment.  You can't just pop into the soup kitchen and see if they need help ladling. 

I also started learning a lot more about the actual problem of youth homelessness in my own community.  I'm going to need a few blog posts to cover this, but the quick summary is that even though I live in a privaledged suburb, people, included young adults and children, regularly deal with homelessness (and hunger) here.  Ugh. 

I will confess to being an absolute bleeding heart liberal.  We live in the most privileged country on earth.  People shouldn't go hungry.  And people (especially kids) should have a safe place to sleep.  Even a home. 

Up the street from me is a building that is being converted to a Friends of Youth Shelter. Friends of Youth provides therapeutic foster care and emergency shelters and services for youth and young adults.  The new building is going to be shelter for transitional housing for kids graduating out of the foster system.  I started learning about the really great things that Friends of Youth does for youth and families on the Eastside, and I thought they really are the kind of organization I want to help.  They provide a lot of support and connect clients to a variety of services to help with the transition out of homelessness. 

One of the ways that they need help is providing meals at a young adult shelter.  The Landing provides emergency housing (and dinner, and breakfast, and showers and laundry) for 15 adults from 18-24.  They can also connect them with other services, like counseling, medical help or even education.  This is really important stuff!

So important, that even though I am terribly hesitant to cook for people I don't know especially well (or at all), I decided to start volunteering to bring dinner to The Landing.  After we get this first run off the ground, I'll see how often is realistic to volunteer.  I've been SO nervous about this, but I expect that as it becomes routine, I'll feel less nervous.

Science Fair Judging

Last weekend, I judged my first science fair. 

It might be surprising that I've never done this before: I care about education, about science, about youth having opportunities that ignite their passions... and somehow I've never judged a science fair.  Why, you ask?  High schoolers scare me. I was a real jerk when I was in high school, so it seems fair to assume that high school students just won't be that much fund to hang out with. But, because I need to find some way to get all these volunteer hours, I figured I should do it, even if am killed by uber-cool-kid eye rolls.

I thought the Central Sound Regional Science & Engineering Fair might be a chance to flex my science background a bit and I heard there was free breakfast.  I didn't expect it to be such a great networking opportunity, and I was positively blown away by the student entrants.  But we'll start with the adult experience.  I was on a team of four judges in Molecular and Cellular Biology.  A grad student, a high school science teacher, and a professor/researcher (and me). I was (of course) the only woman, so I immediately felt glad I showed up, since easily half of our students were girls.

While chatting before and after with the other judges, we had a really great chance to share ideas and resources. The teacher was looking for ways to help his students get science fair projects, so we got to brainstorm ideas and resources with him.  And the professor/researcher wanted to know more about my work as a curriculum writer because he is interested in special ed. The point is, the science fair is a cool professional networking venue that really mixes people up across disciplines.

As for the judging, it wasn't hard work.  Talking with students is WAY less mind numbing that your average poster session.  They were excited and nervous to talk to us.  As we were walking through the poster, conveying the very essence of hopelessly lost, students would straighten up as if we might swoop and pepper them with irrationally hard questions at any time. Ha!  The organizers specifically told us to leave all students with a positive impression of their work (you know, to keep them in science).

The students we got to talk to were absurdly sharp. And almost all of them had been performed at one of the research institutes.  This made us skeptical that the students hadn't just shadowed a post-doc for a few weeks and put some mystery figures on a poster.  A few had pretty basic projects, one experiment, n=1 stuff, but frankly not stuff a grad student would suggest. It was clear those students had a lot of ownership in thier projects.  The other were even more sophisticated, stuff that I can say would have been impossible to do in Juneau's science fair.

The student we were most impressed with, from abstract, to the 20 minutes of grilling he joyfully tolerated while we tried to probe the question "is this kid for real?" went on to win the science fair.  His project was about developing a human induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-derived heart tissue.  He had done lots of work, had great experiments and results, and was super excited about what he had done.  He really knew his stuff, how the assay were done, why the assays were done, and how his tests would help inform whether he could build a better heart.  Oh, and he was a freshman AND he had to drive an hour into the city to work at this UW lab twice a week. 

This experience clearly left me excited for the future of science.  It also made me very excited for the Washington State Science and Engineering Fair, April 4 and 5.  If you are around, and want to join in this judging it should be a lot of fun!  You can judge only Friday or only Saturday, if being in Bremerton doesn't work well with your work schedule.

Even The Kiddos Can Help!

My sister-in-law just informed me that she and my nephew have started volunteering with an organization called Little Helping Hands. Their mission is to support raising kids to value volunteerism by making it a family activity. My family helped out by cleaning up a park.

Also, my nephew isn't yet two. I am just loving the idea of him helping out and volunteering!