YOUNG WOMEN IN BIO

Young Women In Bio (YWIB) is part of the Women in Bio (WIB) organization, a professional organization committed to promoting career development, leadership and entrepreneurship among women in the life sciences. YWIB is a special initiative of WIB, designed to introduce school-age girls to careers in science, technology, engineering and math. For questions, please contact info@womeninbio.org.

Upcoming Events

May 16, 2012:  WIB-Washington DC/Baltimore:  Young Women In Bio at BioPark
The Institute for Genome Sciences (IGS) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine invites Baltimore area middle school girls for an afternoon discovering the fun and challenge of science and medical careers. The event will be held on Wednesday, May 16, 2012 from 4:00 p.m.to 6:45 p.m. EST in downtown Baltimore.  It includes a hands-on lab exercise and an informal discussion with women working in science and medicine. A separate simultaneous event about nurturing interests in science will be held for parents. The discussions will be followed by a pizza dinner.  Click here for more information and to register.

Past Events:
Young Women In Bio Program Continues Its’ Successful Partnership with Biogen Idec
Thirty young women from area middle schools (6-8th grade) arrived at the RTP location of Biogen Idec on the afternoon of February 28, 2012.  After meeting each other and company scientists, they were split into groups and the young women took tours of the facilities, learning about the manufacturing of bio-pharmaceuticals along the way.  During the conversations that took place along the tour, the young women asked thoughtful questions of the scientists about the types of products Biogen Idec manufactures, the patients that they help, and the process by which their products are manufactured.

Once the tour concluded, the visitors broke up into smaller groups and participated in a variety of activities such as using pipettes in the lab or learning about the importance of documentation at every stage of a product, which protects the patients that take it.
At each stage of the evening, the young women were paired with strong women role models, many in management and leadership positions at Biogen.  Each of these women had chances to talk to small groups and answer questions about their jobs and their interest in science.

The evening ended with everyone sharing pizza courtesy of Biogen Idec and talking about their respective schools and what they had learned from this event. Women In Bio is looking for other companies to join in similar partnerships as Biogen to educate more young women about careers in the life sciences industry.

MedImmune Hosts YWIB Event
On February 17, 2012, MedImmune hosted a special presentation for a YWIB (Young
Women In Bio) group from a local Montgomery County high school. The event started with an inspirational lecture on being a scientist in pharma/biotech. With a typical 5,000 to 1 preclinical pipeline success rate, it takes a lot of creativity, persistence and optimism to embrace this career choice. A facility tour included a high-throughput cell characterization sorter, the local production facility and a robotic assay screener (to test those thousands of candidate compounds). It was a great experience for both students and WIB volunteers.


YWIB at QIAGEN
On November 10, 2011 YWIB held a Fall event for middle school girls in Montgomery County and the Greater Washington area. QIAGEN graciously hosted the event at their Germantown, MD corporate office. Around 35 energetic middle school girls attended. QIAGEN scientists enthusiastically talked about their work, took the girls on a tour of the facility, talked about the "world of microbes" and provided the students with an opportunity to participate in a few " hands on experiments". The event was wrapped up with a pizza dinner and gift give aways generously donated by QIAGEN. Ridgeview Middle School the "pilot" YWIB middle school club was one of the schools who attended the event with their teacher sponsor Ms. Ellen Polster. The event provided an exciting opportunity for young women with an interest in learning more about science to broaden their horizons.