Eight Utah State University students came together on Wednesday evening to share short personal stories with the public about their experiences as scientists in USU’s Science Story Slam event.
Some stories were thought-provoking:
“And what he told me wasn’t necessarily novel or profound, but he said, ‘You deserve to get just as much out of this as everyone else.’”
Others had the audience giggling:
“You take some mud and you do stuff with the mud and you get plastics out, and so I was like that’s easy enough, right? That won’t take years of my life.”
The stories came from a range of USU students, from freshmen undergraduates to PhD candidates, all with unique perspectives on science. The Story Slam was part of Open Access Week, an international initiative to make science freely available to everyone.
Erica Finch, a Scholarly Communication Librarian at USU and one of the event organizers, emphasized the importance of science communication and making science accessible to the general public.
“We connect with stories. And when we talk about what it means to be scientists to do science to participate in higher education, that's something that people really relate to,” Finch explained.
Each storyteller attended a workshop run by Temis Taylor, a socio-environmental scientist at USU, and communication coach with Exact Communication, in order to improve their Story Slam pieces and brush up on science communication skills.
“It's great to get up there and tell your story, but they're also walking away with these amazing new skills that they can continue to apply throughout their academic careers, or wherever they go next,” Finch said.
With high turnout, Finch hopes the Story Slam will return as an annual event.
The students who shared stories at this year’s event were:
- Bryn Watkins, Environment and Society, Graduate Student
- Dani Berger, Wildland Resources, Graduate Student
- Elaine Carpenter, Plant Soils and Climate, Undergraduate Student
- Emma Wilkinson, Plant Soils and Climate, Undergraduate Student
- Georgie Corkery, Environment and Society, Graduate Student
- Regan Tracy, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Undergraduate Student
- Ryan Helcoski, Wildland Resources, Graduate Student
- Sarah Bogen, Math and Statistics, Graduate Student
