healthcare science week – STP Perspectives

Public engagement

Hi, my name is Jas and I am a third year Genomics trainee working in Cambridge. Over the past couple of years on the STP I have been involved in public engagement which is an important part of the programme. During the pandemic opportunities for face-to-face public engagement were limited. However, I was invited to take part in a virtual careers events for a University that I had previously attended. I had the opportunity to talk to Biomedical science students about my experience with the STP. It was really rewarding talking to the students as they clearly were enthusiastic about the event as their opportunities to learn more about their career options had been limited by the pandemic. They had many interesting questions to ask and I enjoyed informing them about my experience on the STP and the application process.

Can we make science more approachable?

Think of the following scenario. You are in the pub, having a drink and meet some new people. The first thing they ask is, “So, what do you do?”. What do you reply to this? How do you put words together that would make sense to the person in front of you? I usually have a mild panic trying to assess the level of biological understanding of the person in front of me and lead with “I am training to be a clinical scientist, at the genetics laboratory in our hospital”. I then wait to see if they ask follow-up questions or are just satisfied with moving on to pub talk.

Continue reading “Can we make science more approachable?”