About a couple of weeks ago, Jessica and I, both Grade 10 students, attended the “Most Exceptional Escapades in Science” conference at UBC.
We started off with short lectures from Joanne Fox and her colleague, David Eng, both of whom work at the Michael Smith Laboratory.
Next, we enjoyed a presentation by an influential researcher, Jody Wright, sharing information her research in Marine Biology. From that single lecture, we learned many things about her life, the obstacles she faced and how we could contribute to health sciences if we wanted to pursue a career similar to hers. The one thing that I will always remember from that lecture is that she said, “It’s not what you know, but who you know” that helps determine a students’ success in getting to university.
Jessica and I both felt it was a great experience for us. Not only were we able to listen to lectures by scientist concerning the big events in relation to current science issues, but we also got to talk to and introduce ourselves to many professors and students doing their undergraduate degrees. We had lots of questions for the professors regarding both the topics that were discussed and their opinions.
After an exciting day full of labs and discussions, it was very difficult to choose which part we enjoyed the most. We agreed that the most exciting experience was the lab visit in the end. We visited three labs, each with their unique experiments. Next year, I would highly encourage students in the younger grades to attend this conference if they think that sciences could be a potential career choice.
Karianne, Grade 10
