Read our school visit diaries!
Simona Palermo
14 December 2007
Vimercate (Milan), Italy
In December, I was invited to participate in a vocational guidance programme for high-school students in Vimercate (near Milan), Italy, presenting my experience as a woman in science. Two other female scientists were also involved in the event: Alessandra Stella, a bioinformatician who also works at the Parco Tecnologico Padano, and Federica Terreni, a chemist who specialises in new materials.
From left to right: Federica Terreni, chemist, Barbara Ongaro, teacher, and Simona Palermo, molecular biologist |
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I was pleasantly surprised when we visited four different high schools which share facilities and laboratories in a 'campus-style setup' in Vimercate. This is not common at all in Italy. The schools are the Liceo Scientifico A. Banfi (Scientific High School), Istituto Tecnico Industriale A. Einstein (Technical and Industrial Institute), Istituto d'Istruzione Superiore E. Vanoni (Business & Technical Institute, Geometer School and Language School) and Istituto d'Istruzione Superiore V. Floriani (Professional School).
The audience was stimulating and heterogeneous with students enrolled in various programmes. A large number of students were involved, so they were divided into different groups and Alessandra, Federica and I gave our presentations twice in two different classrooms. We presented our experience as women in science in different contexts: Alessandra and I have been mainly involved in public research (in Italy and abroad), while Federica has had extensive experience in the chemical industry.
Simona Palermo giving her presentation as SET-Routes School Ambassador |
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The students (particularly girls) asked a lot of questions about our career experience as women, and seemed particularly worried about the difficulties of reconciling work with family commitments. In addition, they were very interested in our experiences abroad as they had heard that travelling is required to pursue a scientific career.
I also talked about my interest and engagement in scientific communication and journalism. The students showed a keen interest in this activity, which sounded quite new to them - they had never thought that a scientist could also become a writer!
Two young girls participating in the school visit |
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At the end of our talks, I was approached by two girls who were eager to show me their project. With the help of their teacher, Professor Ferruccio Previtali, they were preparing a hypertext focussed on key issues in women's work, in terms of statistics and figures. They were planning to submit their work to an Italian competition entitled "Le donne intorno a noi. Raccontiamole con la statistica" ("Women around us. Let's talk about them through statistics"). I read the text thoroughly, which was well written and very interesting, and gave them a few suggestions on how to improve it. They submitted the work at the end of March - let's cross our fingers!
It was a very pleasant day, hopefully useful and stimulating both for the students and teachers - and it was very enjoyable for us as well!