Anthropology Outreach

For my anthropology class we had “projects” for “making anthropology public.  As one of my projects I presented to biology classes at a local high school (my alma mater).  It wasn’t really something I was terribly thrilled about, especially with it being so close to finals (eeekkk!) and all, but it went really well.  When I got home this evening the teacher that allowed me to talk to her classes had sent me this e-mail (which follows). I must admit that it is a nice ego-boost! Anyway, just wanted to share it and how well it went!

Hello Ashlee:

(I hope I copied the email address correctly). I want to thank you once again for taking time from your day to speak to my students. They enjoyed your presentation and talked amongst themselves about the things they heard and saw after you were gone. In another city I lived and worked, I used to lead an after school program that brought in guest speakers to teach the students about various careers related to math and science. Your presentation was the type of information that would have been ideal for such a program. In fact, I am thinking about maybe starting up something similar on our campus. If so, I would love to use you as a speaker.

When I did my research for my master’s thesis (in education), the focus of my study was the factors that seem to keep girls and minorities out of the traditional science careers. One important factor was the lack of role models. I think the students saw “one of them” talking passionately about science, and hopefully, it might spark an interest, or at least broaden their horizons of possibilities.

Again, thank you for visiting us!

Nita Lorenzana

~ by ashleebones on May 10, 2008.