Graduate Research Assistant University of Utah Salt Lake City, Utah
Background: Through the National Science Foundation’s STEM Ambassador Program (STEMAP), a health sciences librarian and a graduate student in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology were brought together through shared experiences with their children and journeys through parenthood to host a series of workshops for parents. Working alongside a community partner, they taught interactive workshops on health information and drug interactions with the body for a local non-profit organization that specializes in helping parents of children with disabilities. The organization’s mission of parents helping parents allowed them to bring their own journeys into the series of workshops they lead.
Description: STEMAP provides specialized training to guide faculty and graduate students in STEM fields to create specialized engagement activities for a particular focal group. The program aims to facilitate open-minded exchange between scientists and members of the public. The authors formed vision statements, interviewed stakeholders, then designed and carried out engagement activities for the parent organization. They held a three-part virtual series incorporating scientific topics that would be useful and assist parents of children with disabilities. Both presenters led sessions relevant to their expertise: navigating and evaluating health information and how medications move through the body. The third session encouraged parents to use techniques introduced in the previous two sessions and apply them to different real-world scenarios.
Conclusion: The series brought together dozens of parents from a wide range of backgrounds. The presenters received positive feedback about the series from STEMAP leaders who observed the sessions and participants who filled out evaluations about their experience. After concluding the series, several participating parents have used the health sciences library as a resource for obtaining reliable information. The librarian was asked to serve on the editorial board of a resource for health-related information about children and youth with special health care needs representing six mountain west states. The graduate student was invited to be a mentor for the next cohort of STEM ambassadors.