Growing Up In Science

Growing Up In Science (GUIS) is a series of talks, featuring personal narratives from academic researchers and professionals in STEM fields, about the process of becoming and being a scientist. The series was originally started by Dr. Wei Ji Ma and Dr. Cristina Alberini at NYU, and after attending and being inspired by the series as an undergraduate, I was inspired to start a GUIS series at my graduate institution, the University of Michigan.

A typical Growing Up In Science event features the personal narrative of an individual in science, with emphasis on on struggles, failures, doubts, detours, and weaknesses. Common topics include dealing with expectations, impostor syndrome, procrastination, luck, rejection, conflicts with advisors, and work- life balance, but these topics are always embedded in the speaker’s broader narrative. Importantly, this is not a series meant to explicitly give advice to trainees (although this is an important side effect), it is meant to center the story of an individual.

Before each event, the speaker provides an “unofficial story” about their life, as a sort of abstract so that attendees know what they’re about to here. As events happen, these unofficial stories will be published below.