December 3, 2021
Hi there, 👋

We hope you are staying warm and are having a great end to the school year! Stay busy during your winter break and get inspired for the New Year with all of the STEM news featured below, as well as upcoming events, internships, and scholarships. ⚛️
Don't miss our STEM Leadership Academy events in the New Year!
January 18th- Museum of Science and Industry: Career Chat and Demos!
Join the STEM Leadership Academy and the Museum of Science and Industry for a virtual tour of their Science Storms exhibit, a live science demo, and a career chat and Q&A with Dr. Olivia Castellini, Senior Exhibit Developer at MSI! 🌩️ 
 
Dr. Olivia Castellini, a physicist by training, creates award winning exhibits and experiences at the Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) in Chicago, making science and cutting–edge research accessible and engaging for all. Olivia excels at translating complex topics into relatable experiences on everything from nanotechnology and math to music and sports.
January 29th- Professional Skills: Resume Workshop
Do you need a resume for college applications or a summer internship you're applying for? Need to create one from scratch, or edit one you already have?
 
Join Exelon STEM Leadership Academy for a virtual resume workshop! Whether you have a completed resume or are starting from scratch, we will help you create, edit, and polish your resume with tons of helpful hints and guidance. 📝
 
Participants will work in small groups with peer mentors to create, improve or polish their resume.
ComEd Senior Engineer Terrika Worthon chats about her journey into STEM:
📸 Terrika Worthon, Senior Engineer at ComEd, volunteering with the ComEd Ice Box Derby
Terrika Worthon is a Senior Engineer at ComEd, the electric utility company for Northern Illinois. Terrika works in ComEd’s distribution standards department to provide technical support on overhead equipment. She works with people inside and outside the company to research and evaluate the equipment their crews use in the field to help deliver reliable power to families and businesses.

Terrika's advice for anyone wanting to pursue a career in STEM is: "I would strongly encourage them to go for it. There will be challenges along the way but, always remember, anything worth having takes hard work. For the young women and underrepresented minorities, don’t be afraid to be the only one in the room at times or even one of a select few." 🙌
Summer STEM Leadership Academy Student Staff Opportunities!
Past attendees of the STEM Leadership Academy- If you’re interested in being a student staff mentor for the 2022 summer STEM Leadership Academy, you will be receiving an invitation to apply this month! Keep an eye out in your email for more information. If you have any questions, please contact Rebecca Lamb, rlamb@need.org.
Celebrate Computer Science Education Week December 6-12!
CSEdWeek is an annual call to action to inspire K-12 students to learn computer science, advocate for equity in computer science education, and celebrate the contributions of students, teachers, and partners to the field. 💻

The CSEdWeek theme this year is #CSEverywhere! This highlights the impact that computer science is making everywhere and the relationship that computer science has to different subjects, industries, career paths, and our everyday lives. CS has helped unlock mysteries in math and medicine, 🩺 it’s been used to create art. 🎨 CS built your phone, the internet, your favorite games, movies, and tv shows. 📺 CS helped us eradicate diseases and enables us to explore the depth of space. 🌌 CS really is everywhere!

For CSEdWeek, you can check out all of these cool events related to learning to code and being underrepresented in tech. You can also use all of these online lessons to learn to code!
Good news! There’s a lot of financial aid available to women pursuing STEM careers:
📸 Kaylin Moss, computer science senior at Marist College and Generation Google scholarship winner
There are a lot of scholarships from organizations, foundations and companies that are available to women pursuing STEM careers featured in this article from CNBC. Highlighted as a STEM scholarship recipient is Kaylin Moss, a senior at Marist College studying computer science. She applied to hundred of scholarships, which she found through databases, social media or internet searches. She won a Generation Google scholarship.

Kaylin says that the “application process was lengthy” ̶ she had to answer three essay questions and submit a resume and academic transcript. Some scholarships require that you write essays, while others ask for videos or artistic works. And, the application process is a time commitment. Kaylin’s advice is to focus on scholarships that best align with your method of communication. So, if you love writing – go for the essays. If you’re a natural on camera, go for the scholarships that ask for a video. 🎥📝
Apply for the 2022 NEED Youth Energy Leadership Award!
Speaking of scholarships for STEM students... apply for the NEED Youth Energy Leadership Award! The NEED Project recognizes student leadership by awarding the Youth Energy Leadership Award each year. Up to two $1,500 awards will be granted for use for college, university or technical school tuition and expenses to deserving students who have demonstrated outstanding energy leadership, knowledge, and an interest in continuing their energy studies for the purpose of seeking a career in energy, STEM, or education. ⚛️ Each year, at least one award will be given to a student who plans to enter the energy field or public service related to energy. Graduating high school seniors or current first or second year college, university or technical school students are eligible to apply.
Glamour's Woman of the Year: The Scientist Who Saved the World
Dr. Katalin Karikó devoted her career to understanding the possibilities of mRNA. When the pandemic struck, her unheralded work became the basis for the world’s most effective vaccines.

Dr. Karikó's research partner, Dr. Weissman, says about Dr. Karikó: She’s hit more hurdles than probably anybody in any career ever, and she persevered, and she continued.” 👏

Each morning, at home or in Europe, Karikó wakes up and goes for a run. She’s entered several half marathons. She trained for a marathon once. In the winter she’ll sometimes use her daughter’s rowing machine. The exercise is meditative, even when it’s hard. She compares it to her research—that itch to go further and harder and to push herself. “It is just the same what we are doing,” she says. “We want to see. Do we have a limit?

A Woman Warned Us About Climate Change 165 Years Ago:
Eunice Newton Foote's 1856 research foreshadowed how both climate change and women would be treated by society for decades. The first kind of, sort of, maybe global action on climate change, the Kyoto protocol, didn't come until 140 years later. 🌍

Her experiments are now considered a precursor to those done in 1859 by John Tyndall, who proved the greenhouse effect comes from gases like water vapor and carbon dioxide absorbing heat radiated from the surface of the Earth (not the sun's rays) and redirecting it back toward Earth. But Tyndall cited a fellow male scientist in his research, not Foote.
How the Black Girl Gamers Community became a safe space for thousands of players:
📸 Jay-Ann Lopez, creator of Black Girl Gamers
Born and raised in London, Jay- Ann Lopez started playing video games when she was just 6 years old, after receiving her very first console, a Nintendo, from her uncle. 🎮 She was hooked, but - as with movies and TV - she rarely saw herself represented. “On screen, I hardly ever saw Black characters. When I did, they were there for comedic relief. They were the macho Black man or the Black woman with an attitude problem, the sassy Black woman trope,” she recalls. Lopez tried to find a place in gaming with her YouTube channel, but eventually abandoned it. She felt annoyed, ostracized, invisible—and there were lots of gamers just like her. 

In October 2015, Lopez started Black Girl Gamers, a Twitch channel that has since become an online safe space and platform for heightening the visibility of Black women in gaming. BGG currently has more than 7,000 members in its Facebook group and some 35,000 followers on Twitch. The group runs IRL events and creates online content to support diversity in the gaming industry. The organization now offers events, workshops, consulting, mentorship opportunities, and a talent agency to represent streamers!
Get together a team and coach and register for the National Science Bowl!
Launched in 1991, the National Science Bowl® (NSB) is a highly competitive science education and academic event among teams of high school and middle school students who compete in a fast-paced verbal forum to solve technical problems and answer questions in all branches of science and math. Each team is composed of four students, one alternate student, and a coach. Regional and national events encourage student involvement in math and science activities of importance to the Department of Energy and the Nation!
College Students: Apply for the Mickey Leland Energy Fellowship (MLEF) Program!
Want to tackle climate change? 🌍 The U.S. Department of Energy's Mickey Leland Energy Fellowship (MLEF) Program is a 10-week summer research program for undergraduate and graduate students in STEM majors. Be a part of the solution by contributing to the mission of minimizing the environmental impacts of fossil fuels while working towards net-zero emissions. Travel and housing assistance are provided to eligible participants. Apply by January 10, 2022.
Exelon and our operating companies are sharing fun updates on social media! Be sure to keep in touch and follow us: