Two Years of Giving Youth a Platform at Youth STEM Matters
If I were to go back in time to late 2019, and early 2020, right before we founded Youth STEM Matters, and tell my past self of how much we have flourished over two years, I know I would feel a sense of astonishment, but more importantly, a sense of certitude. Of course we would have been able to do what we have! The truth of the matter is that I always knew that by working together, with a clear mission in mind, young people could redefine the limits of guiding the whole world to a more sustainable present and future. I could not be more in awe of the hours and hours of thought, commitment and dedication that each and every volunteer in our team has put in to have raised our journal, our global home, to where it is now. I could not be more in wonder at the creativity of youth authors who continue working on their thought-provoking research pieces after submitting to us; in the face of constructive feedback, they have risen to the challenge. I’m a fan of a football club whose motto is that it's more than a club. Through the past year especially, we have cemented why we are more than a journal. Together, Copy-Editors, Editors, Reviewers, Science Communication Editors, Artists and leaders have worked ever-so-closely to create the ardent and enthusiastic community that today, with pride, we call Youth STEM Matters.
Developing a Generation of Researchers, Innovators and Leaders
We have fostered an environment where our volunteers can stretch their potential to the limit, develop their analysis of scientific literature, and master the art of giving constructive feedback to young people, just like them, from anywhere in the world. After many iterations and fine-tuning, the training programme for our brilliant volunteers has reached a really high standard, in stark comparison to what we had at the very beginning (with many thanks to Adam, the Editor-in-Chief at the time, who took the lead on this!). Not only is the content more thorough, detail-oriented and full of practical advice on how to guide a youth author to make the most out of their ideas and research, but the delivery and engagement is unparalleled. The whole leadership team of 22 people are actively involved to really welcome new members and share their expertise. And it doesn’t stop there! We never stop learning, as everyone, including members of the leadership team, receives continuous and ongoing feedback which is interactive and specifically tailored for them. Often there’s feedback on the feedback they give! We have erased the concept of stagnancy. In addition, there are team-specific activities which have continued throughout the year to ensure the experience we provide our authors remains high quality. For example, in the research team, we have organised sessions where everyone has the opportunity to share a peer-reviewed article, explore their thoughts on it, and engage the rest of the team in an academic discussion on the intricacies (and sometimes flaws!) of literature. Together, we have been able to really advance our strategies to support our authors in the very best ways possible, with support from the International Advisory Group.
A very poignant highlight for me has been the beauty of seeing new leaders emerge from my friends at the journal who I interviewed only last year, but now are leading their own teams, handling their own papers and giving constructive feedback to people who were like them just the year before! Seeing the evolution of the team, from the ‘older’ generation, to the ‘newer’ one is something exhilarating and too precious to give justice with words. Youth STEM Matters is truly my second home, and being able to see it support more and more young people as they grow into leaders is just amazing. Over the past year, we have had so many new roles opening up, including Coordinating Managing Editor, Senior Journalist (Outreach) and Head of Digital and Data, creating even more leadership opportunities for young people!
We are ever-evolving towards the better - and guided by the voices of our own team members. In December 2021, ‘Future of Volunteering’ workshops were led by Mhairi McCann, Founder of Youth STEM 2030. In small groups we discussed what we want the present and future of our journal to be like. Every single voice counted, and as a result of these discussions, we are focusing even more on skills development and fine-tuning the author & volunteer experience.
Our Community
This time last year, as a journal we reflected on what we could do to improve our outreach and help more and more young people access scientific research and publishing opportunities. That’s why we organised two research conferences in the past year! It has been a phenomenal effort on both occasions, in June and October 2021. In both conferences, we welcomed young people onto our virtual stage (to a combined total of over 400 attendees!) where they passionately discussed their research and innovations, from animal-free dairy, to circular economies and early detection systems for gas leaks. Many other young people were also able to showcase their research in our exhibition booths; the Research Conferences truly gave young people a platform. In addition, we equipped them with skills and useful insights into how to start working on a research project, writing it up in practice, and publishing it at Youth STEM Matters! 8 year old Miriam Turk, who - alongside her sister, Ruth Turk - was awarded the Best Speaker prize for her talk on designing suitable masks for children, sums up why we organised these conferences: “I met a lot of amazing youth through Youth STEM Matters, learned new skills and had an amazing experience through the research process.” This feeling of empowerment - that’s what we’re all about and we strive to acknowledge young people’s successes and achievements. That’s also why we recognised Youth STEM Matters authors and volunteers in our first annual Awards Ceremony during the June 2021 conference! I had the honour of being voted by the team as the ‘Volunteer of the Year’, which is so precious to me and brings a whole-hearted smile to my face every time I think about it (thank you, my friends!). So many of my team members also were shortlisted and awarded for their leadership, mentoring, being inspirational and a lot more! Seeing authors being recognised for all the work they put in, not only writing up their research (that’s just the beginning) but also working with us to transform their work into the best it could ever be, was incredibly gratifying as well. Here are all the details!
In our Volunteer Team community as well, we have all been involved with a variety of channels and clubs within our Slack workspace! From Youth STEM Matters Book Club where we discuss all things book-wise, to #Positiviteam, where we engage in sparks of conversation about the marvels of life, and the brand new - and very popular - #Ask-Me-Anything channel, where we get to know a different member of our team every single week! It’s been truly magnificent to see the social side of our organisation grow so beautifully as well over this past year.
Our Global Impact
It brings me joy to see that this year, the journal has published articles focusing specifically on every single UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)! When discussing our vision and mission for the journal, we knew that aligning our work with the SDGs would mean we ensure our articles would focus specifically on what actions are needed to overcome the crises of our society - from poverty, to health inequities and threats to life under water. Interdependence has never been more crucial, and I particularly value this milestone.
We also published a total of 48 articles over the year; the cumulation of the efforts of authors and our entire Volunteer Team! These include our first physical sciences research and review papers, exploring sustainable alternatives to plastic, and how we can make stronger and more sustainable concrete. Our articles focus on novel approaches, angles and insights into topics that the scientific community already knows a lot about. I particularly have loved projects which were the result of collaborations between different departments within the journal. Kavina, an Editor in our team, and Valeria, an Artist, worked together to produce an excellent and curiosity-provoking article on the purpose of hostile architecture! Other highlights include interviews with prominent figures in STEM, for example, volunteers Lily and Olivia discussed the field with Nishigandha Kelka who is an aerospace engineer and an advocate for higher education for young people.
Our journal offers unique and perceptive directions for future research and practical actions that can be taken to step towards a world where our global biome is not in danger from every single societal lens. Yes, plastic pollution is a major issue, and biodegradable plastics must be considered. However, Jacqueline Prawira, a youth author, already knows all this. She offers us a novel pathway to tackle this major issue - upcycling fish scale waste components into an alternative material - Cyclo.Plas 2! This year, we also published our first two life sciences review papers, for one of which I had the privilege of being the primary handling editor. Ciara Downey, another of our authors, tells us all about the current theories on the development of Alzheimer’s and whether new research and clinical trials shift the scales towards anti-amyloid-β therapeutics (or not!), particularly emphasising where exactly research needs to be done to bridge the gap in our understanding of this heart-breaking condition. With our improved training, Reviewers were able to give even more meaningful and effective feedback, enabling our authors to make their articles the best they can be!
Looking to the Future
This year, the cherry on top of the cake has been that, with support from authors and volunteers, we are publishing our first print edition this month! Featuring original research, new articles and interesting perspectives - it is a celebration of youth in STEM! It feels incredible that what 2 years ago was an abstract idea in our minds, is now going onto paper. The journey so far has undoubtedly had highs and lows, but overall, it has been marvellous - and I cannot even begin to imagine all the future amazing goals we will achieve together. What I can imagine, however, is that I will not be surprised at the limits we will continue to redefine.
