Inspire a Young Person into STEM
Calling passionate researchers and STEM professionals! Engage in a meaningful opportunity by hosting students from low-income and disadvantaged backgrounds for one or two-week work experience placements during the Summer of 2024. In2STEM (Formerly In2science Summer Programme) is a fantastic opportunity for 16-19-year-olds (Year 12 or S5/S6) passionate about STEM. As a volunteer with the In2STEM programme, you play a crucial role in providing students with exciting in-person STEM experiences. Collaborate closely with our team to create engaging placements, enabling students to explore STEM beyond the classroom, develop essential skills, and enhance their future applications. Your involvement will make a lasting impact on our participants and the future of STEM.
Benefits of Getting Involved
Aside from the rewards of making a real difference for the young people you support, there are personal merits to be had by volunteering with In2scienceUK.
Hosting a student at your workplace provides evidence of public engagement and outreach. In2scienceUK can provide letters of support and endorsement for grant applications, departmental REFs, Athena SWAN applications, Annual Reports and Corporate Social Responsibility.
Learn new skills and develop your communication, mentoring and coaching skills by working with young people to diversify your CV and develop career-enhancing skills.
Many of our previous hosts tell us that by viewing their work from a different perspective, they are able to refresh their view and appreciate the importance and excitement of their profession.
Our programme enables you to give back to your local community during your regular working day. You may also get the chance to network with other colleagues who are also supporting students.
Hear from our hosts: Top tips for hosting a placement
Meet our Hosts
It was refreshing to explain our work to from a different perspective, and very rewarding to see my student quickly picking up experimental techniques. I was reminded of how I decided to pursue my current career around that, and it is reassuring to know that the future of our profession is in good hands!
JoshuaUCL Institute of Ophthalmology
I have volunteered as a STEM ambassador for the last 7 years but I found engaging with my In2science placement very fulfilling and rewarding. I think I was able to inspire my student to pursue a career in biomedical sciences and I have learnt that they have achieved conditional offers from London universities.
RinaReta Lila Weston Institute of Neurological Studies
A good look around most university campuses will show a flaring lack of diversity. A big part of this is a lack of belief in these communities that they can be successful, and a great way of changing this culture is to show them what it’s actually like.
JonathonImperial College London
Coming into a company like Abcam and seeing what working life in a lab or other department is like can really build confidence and make careers become realistic and achievable for them. We are very pleased that a former In2science student has joined our Protein Sciences Team.
SarahAbcam
It was great to remind myself of the luxury of having a job that allows you to stay curious. Showing my work to the next generation of researchers and seeing their excitement made me appreciate this luxury even more.
MaximilianUCL Chemical Engineering
The In2science initiative showed me how important it is to create a framework to engage young people from disadvantaged groups and to give them help and mentoring beyond academic knowledge.
BernadettUCL Institute of Neurology