Several STEM-centric efforts recently secured funding from the UChicago Inclusive Innovation Fund. Now in its second year, the fund is part of a broader UChicago effort to make the sciences more inclusive.
Led by the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Argonne National Laboratory, and Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory and coordinated by UChicago’s Office of Civic Engagement (OCE) and the Office of Science, Innovation, National Labs, and Global Initiatives (SING), the Inclusive Innovation initiative aims to engage local students, educators, and workers and connect them to the city’s growing scientific ecosystem, thereby helping to generate a diverse talent pipeline in the sciences and spur economic growth on the historically under-resourced South Side.
The Inclusive Innovation Fund is one way the initiative is starting to lay a foundation for positive impact. In an effort to spur collaboration among partner institutions, this year, two projects also received funding from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Funding was awarded to both programs and faculty efforts. This year’s program awardees include:
- All About Energy (Argonne National Lab and UChicago Office of Civic Engagement): An immersive six-week summer pre-internship that challenges Chicago high school students to undergo data-driven research into environmental justice issues in local communities. This project also received funding from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
- Innovate2Market (The Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign): The first community-centered program of its kind at either institution, the Innovate2Market program is designed to empower community inventors and innovators to explore the commercial opportunities and impact of their products and ideas.
- STEM College and Career Readiness Tours (UChicago Office of Civic Engagement): The Office of Civic Engagement’s college and career readiness programs will be able to provide local, regional, and national visits for more than 100 Chicago Public Schools students to institutions and industry sites with a focus on STEM including the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and more.
- STEM Innovators Micro Lessons Project (UChicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, Physical Sciences Department, and Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures): An effort to develop, test, revise, and broadly share a set of accessible, easy-to-use, and innovation-focused micro lessons for elementary and middle school students across the South Side and throughout the city of Chicago.
- Cancer Clinical Research Professionals Program (UChicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center): Building on a growing partnership between the UChicago Medicine’s Comprehensive Cancer Center and City Colleges of Chicago, the program addresses the need for clinical research professionals by providing hands-on training and employment opportunities to community college students interested in biomedicine.
- Algebraic Minds in Network 9 (UChicago STEM Education): Led in partnership with Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Network 9, the program supports a Professional Learning Community of approximately 25 Grade 5 and Grade 6 teachers in targeted neighborhoods with a focus on algebraic reasoning.
- Ready, Set, STEM! Expansion (UChicago STEM Education): In partnership with Beasley Child Parent Center in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood, this effort will expand Ready, Set, STEM—UChicago STEM Education’s innovative and successful early childhood STEM program—to reach almost 150 students and their families, as well as eight teachers in all six preschool classrooms at the Beasley Child Parent Center.
This year’s faculty awardee teams include:
- EXPLORE: Experiential Learning Opportunity to Research and Analysis for South Side Youth (John Schneider, Jessi Dehlin, Indigo Monae): In partnership with South Side LGBTQIA+ youth-serving organization Yoga Gardens, this three-month paid internship will expose and train participants in research and biostatistics, positioning them to be quality candidates for a career in STEM.
- A STEM Outreach Program to Encourage Youth from Underrepresented Backgrounds in Medicine: A Focus on Gastroenterology (Edwin McDonald, April Ross, Elizabeth Barbosa, Eugene Chang): A six-week, paid summer internship program for high school juniors and seniors from public schools in the surrounding zip code service area interested in careers in healthcare with a goal to create pathways to careers in gastroenterology and healthcare for youth from underrepresented backgrounds.
- A Lab in a Neighborhood: Community-Informed OST STEAM Youth Programming (Paul Sereno, Jessica Schwartz, Nena Connelly): This effort will develop two summer programs for teens that each utilize two distinctive learning settings—Ancient Bones has hands-on activities in UChicago’s just opened Fossil Lab and the MRSEC makerspace engaging students in earth science and technology and Parks Alive! has hands-on activities in the lagoon and parklands of Washington Park and UChicago’s One Button media studio engaging students in life science and media.
“The Inclusive Innovation initiative is working to create opportunities and entry points for South Siders to engage with and benefit from new and evolving areas of science and this year’s fund awardees were so creative and collaborative in how they approached that goal,” Sarah Tinsman, Program Director for Inclusive Innovation in the Office of Civic Engagement, said. “This funding is meant to help each project group develop and scale their work and build innovative collaborations to make a more meaningful impact on our neighbors and we’re excited to see that impact continue to grow.”
