Katrina Kalantar

I remember always being excited to attend the Expanding Your Horizons program for middle school girls — an annual event where I would get to spend the day learning from women in various science-related roles. This went a long way to helping me see myself as a scientist! The Techbridge Girls program provides similar resources to empower girls* of color and gender expansive youth to access quality STEM education. I believe that all science will be better science with continued expansion of representation and diversity within the field and think that inspiring girls at a young age, through the programming offered by Techbridge Girls, is a step in the right direction!

I believe that all science will be better science with continued expansion of representation and diversity within the field and think that inspiring girls at a young age, through the programming offered by Techbridge Girls, is a step in the right direction!

I believe that diversifying science and leadership will lead to better outcomes for all. But, efforts to inspire youth from underrepresented background to pursue Science and Leadership would be fraught without a sense of community. Brave Trails provides camp-based programming dedicated to LGBTQ+ youth leadership, allowing queer youth to find community and acceptance — which I believe are vital to their continued development as future leaders and scientists! I have been fortunate to find community and acceptance through athletics and the outdoors that have helped me thrive as an LGBTQ scientist and I hope that this contribution can help future LGBTQ leaders find the same.