the plenary co.

for immediate release

LabCentral Ignite recently launched the campaign's website, featuring ten stories crafted by the I Am a Scientist team in collaboration with the scientists themselves.

Each story includes portraits, practical advice, career insights, and a behind-the-scenes look at the individuals' life and journey to STEM. The collection aims to accessibly introduce the multifaceted work and stories of leading biotech professionals to inspire the next generation of students and job seekers.

Additionally, LabCentral Ignite created a platform to centralize resources tailored to each of three groups: job seekers, students, and parents, which is now live on the site.

VIEW THE WEBSITE

FROM BLOGS TO BILLBOARDS

"The only way to change the status quo is to introduce more diversity in physics that would deconstruct the stereotypes we grew up with... A diversity of scientists would not only reduce bias, but also add different ways of looking at the world, which is guaranteed to take our science in untapped directions."

– Dr. Nabiha Saklayen, "I (don't) Look Like a Physicist"

In June of 2016, then-graduate student, Dr. Nabiha Saklayen, posted a blog detailing her experiences as a physicist who didn't match many people's stereotypes of what a scientist would look like. She called for the amplification of more diverse scientists stories to challenge misconceptions about what STEM is and who could do it. Shortly after, she took matters into her own hands. Dr. Saklayen teamed up with experience designer, Stephanie Fine Sasse, founder of The Plenary, Co., to initiate a campaign that would work to break the barriers she faced for the rising generation of students. In 2020, I Am a Scientist launched with the mission of ensuring every student has a chance to see themselves in STEM. It has since produced over 80,000 posters, and shared its stories and resources with over 500,000 students.

Six years after she first shared her story, Dr. Saklayen is now one of four scientists featured on public billboards, buses, and liveboards in the "Life Sciences in Full Color" campaign. For the next two months, she will be a visible face of biotech, gracing the public spaces to break stereotypes in the same city that started it all.

CAMPAIGN SNAPSHOT

#WeAreBioDiversity

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500 posters distributed to

boston-area educators

In celebration of the campaign's launch, I Am a Scientist produced and donated 50 sets of 11 posters to educators attending LabCentral Ignite's bioDiversity Awards dinner on September 28, 2022.

Each poster celebrates the story of a STEM professional featured in the campaign, turning them into large, colorful 12x16" displays to make STEM classrooms more inclusive and representative.

The posters are designed to capture each individual's unique personality, highlighting relatable and unexpected insights into their work and life. Each poster also includes a QR code that links to additional digital educational resources through the I Am a Scientist collection.

ABOUT I AM A SCIENTIST

“I Am A Scientist” is a collection of educational resources designed to challenge public misconceptions and inspire the next generation of STEM leaders. We use storytelling and creative lesson plans to introduce the multifaceted people, purposes, and pathways in STEM. By bringing toolkits including posters and resources with scientists' images, research topics, passions, and stories into classrooms, we’re changing the narrative about what science is and who can do it. And by demystifying the paths that our collective of scientists took to get to where they are, we’re making sure that students have what they need to pursue a path of their own.

ABOUT LABCENTRAL IGNITE

LabCentral Ignite is a first-and-only-of-its-kind platform that’s addressing systemic racial, gender and other underrepresentation in talent across the life sciences and the biotech industry – from labs to leadership, and from the STEM student pipeline to the entrepreneurs advancing life-changing innovations. Through a range of equity-driven programs and a powerful member network of industry partners, startups, higher education, and nonprofits, Ignite connects underrepresented students and innovators to academic, technical skills-building, mentoring, job placement, and board and leadership preparation opportunities that fuel biotech diversity and transform careers.

Together, we invited biotech professionals from different walks of life to share their stories and provide a more comprehensive view of the different types of career paths and purposes in the biotech industry. Our hope is to produce content that is relatable and inspiring for students, particularly those in close proximity to the Boston-area biotech hubs. The "Life Sciences in Full Color" campaign is a unique initiative with the potential to provide novel access points to biotech for students and job seekers.

For more information on the "Life Sciences in Full Color" campaign, contact:

LabCentral Ignite • Contact Form

For more information on I Am a Scientist's contribution to the "Life Sciences in Full Color" campaign, contact:

Stephanie Fine Sasse • steph@theplenary.co