Harvard HGWISE & Learn With Leaders Workshops Empowers Girls for Successful Stem Careers

Learn with Leaders offers a full-scholarship workshop in STEM research for girl students, in collaboration with HGWISE

Curiosity, an open mind, and the ability to ask the right question are important for creativity and innovation to flourish. To guide and empower young women researchers, Harvard Graduate Women in Science & Engineering (HGWISE) and Learn with Leaders have joined hands to offer a workshop (that offers full scholarship) where high school students can map out their research journey by asking the right questions. At the workshop on the topic ‘Transforming Simple Musings Into Well-Defined Research Questions’, researchers from Harvard University will be mentoring girl students to help them give shape to their ideas and formulate questions that promote research work in chosen areas.

HGWISE and Learn with Leaders have an ongoing collaboration for conducting free focus group activities for girls to actively encourage their love for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This fully sponsored workshop, explicitly dedicated to girls from grades 10–12, is yet another feather in the caps of the two organizations working to inspire women in STEM education and careers. HGWISE and Learn with Leaders will be reaching out to schools, both private and government-led, to nominate girl students to participate in this special workshop.

‘Every student has a unique way of looking at a problem and conducting research. With the “Transforming Simple Musings Into Well-Defined Research Questions” workshop, we want to support the research style of students by teaching them how to closely study and examine a particular object, event, or situation. When you are able to appropriately formulate your questions, then you can expand your thinking and explore new possibilities. We want the girl participants to gain new answers through well-defined questions and methodically investigate their research topic,’ said Gunjan Aggarwal, Co-founder, Learn with Leaders.

Speaking about the workshop fees, Ms. Aggarwal added, ‘The fee for this workshop is capped at USD 200, but we didn’t want financial constraints to hold back participation. We have, therefore, found sponsorship from like-minded organizations with similar educational aims and objectives as ours, and are offering this workshop for free for all girl students across India.’

In the past, Learn with Leaders has held pro-bono sessions and hosted full-scholarship programs to provide out-of-classroom education to high school students across the globe. However, HGWISE, Learn with Leaders is more focused on helping girl students pursue education and careers in STEM.

Harvard Graduate Women in Science & Engineering (HGWISE), founded in 2005, is a graduate student organization at Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) dedicated to the personal, academic, and professional development of women in STEM. HGWISE conducts workshops, programs, events, and coffee sessions to mentor girl students in STEM education and careers.

‘At HGWISE, we aim to nurture women in STEM, be it personally, academically, or professionally. We are curating workshops targeting girls from India that seek to provide them with prospects and allow them to explore their acumen for science. The “Transforming Simple Musings Into Well-Defined Research Questions” workshop will focus on guiding students to formulate questions that can support their area of research. Students will work in teams with their peers, and each team will have a dedicated mentor who will guide the students in designing a defined line of questioning to uphold their research,” said Michelle Li, Executive Board Member, HGWISE.

The workshop on ‘Transforming Simple Musings Into Well-Defined Research Questions’ will be conducted over two weekends starting 14 August 2021. Learn with Leaders is accepting applications from nominated students on its official website.

About Learn with Leaders

Learn with Leaders is revolutionizing learning and mentoring opportunities for high school students globally by connecting them with faculty, graduates, and mentors from the world’s top universities and leading corporations.

At Learn with Leaders, we believe school-going students can benefit tremendously from learning activities that complement formal school education. Since its inception in 2020, Learn with Leaders has been bringing unique research-oriented and skill-based programs, workshops, and related educational engagements to broaden the horizon of learning and help high school students realize their potential early on. These learning initiatives enable young minds to explore new interests, develop global connections, and take their ideas, creativity, and passion to the next level.

Partnering with the Center for Sustainable Development & Global Competitiveness (CSDGC) at Stanford University, MIT Solv[ED], Harvard Graduate Women in Science & Engineering (HGWISE), Harvard Student Agencies (HSA), the Leadership Institute at Harvard College, Harvard Global Education Movement, and Harvard Model Congress Asia, among others, and faculty from leading universities such as Yale University, Columbia University, and New York University, Learn with Leaders is pioneering an exclusive platform for project-based, collaborative, and experiential learning for students around the world.

For more information on Learn with Leaders, visit: https://learnwithleaders.com/

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