Society for Science & the Public

I am a senior fellow for Society for Science and the Public from Shuqualak, Mississippi. Shuqualak is a small rural economically drained town. Being a senior fellow means I am in the 4th year of my fellowship grant. I have 75 students who have benefitted from this amazing outreach program. One of my students is a first generation high school student headed to college. First in her family! Thanks to the SSP Grant, I have 20 students from single parent households who are doing meaningful research. Two of whom have graduated from The Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science. All of the juniors and seniors in this program, have done service learning projects. Meaning they have worked with younger researchers to develop their ideas. None of these students would have received the recognition and achievement without Society for Science and the Public's Outreach efforts. The funding that they have provided has produced exponentially.

I was a volunteer at ISEF for four years and hope to return!
The organization goes above and beyond to make sure that the kids have a great time and enjoy the returns of all their hard work. If you could see behind the scenes how hard these people work to make sure that everyone has a good time, you'd be surprised. A lot of the volunteer work is handing out supplies to kids, stuffing bags, or playing security, but it's all about the people. Many of the volunteers return year after year- some have been there for twenty years! It's kind of like a second family that you only get to see for a week in May.

I have worked as a volunteer with ISEF for the past four years and it has been an extremely rewarding experience. Meeting and talking with outstanding students from around the world who have submitted their research for evaluation has been very rewarding. I salute the people who organize and run ISEF for their dedication to science and to young people.

I was a volunteer at the ISEF in Pittsburgh. For the participants it was a great experience, they were all thrilled to have the opportunity to show off their capabilities and compete with others at the same level. As a volunteer I found it disorganized, too many volunteers standing around with nothing to do and no one seeming to know where help was needed. Many left out of frustration.

I have been privileged to be a member of Team Canada-ISEF for the past two years. Participating in ISEF has been one of the most transformative and influential experiences of my life. I can think of no other event or organisation that has had such a profound impact on that number of people and inspired them to enter a career in the STEM fields. Additionally, there is no other event which has the capability to connect such a diverse group of like minded individuals at the high school level.

My son was a Finalist at I.S.E.F. all four yrs. of High School. He loved it! It was the greatest experience for him, competing and making friends from all over the world. Competing in science fairs helped him pay for college and to be an eloquent speaker and writer in college. He is now an Engineer in part due to his involvement w/ S.S.P.
I went and volunteered every year that he competed and now as a Board Member w/ his local fair I am still volunteering. This will be my 8th trip to I.S.E.F. to help out a great organization and I am all ready planning for 2016!

Science News is the best all-around science magazine. I have also subscribed to Scientific American and Discover. I see the abstract in Science News and read the more detailed account in SA. Science News by its nature can encompass more articles about more fields of science. So it gives the reader a broader knowledge of what is happening in science, medicine, etc. I love it and have read it for more years than I can remember. Keep on doing what you're doing.

The Intel International Science and Engineering Fair is the premiere competition for high school students in the world. I have worked as a judge after a career of advising students, some of whom advanced to compete against the best in the world at ISEF. The competition helped these students stay on career paths in science and technology. Keep up the good work.

Our daughter was selected as a finalist to participate in Broadcom. MASTERS the first year it launched. What an incredible experience for a 13 year-old from a small, isolate, rural area to work with other like- minded kids. She is still in touch with many of these kids from across the country that she met. Currently she is President of the after school Science Club and mentors other elementary and middle school budding scientists. She has continued to compete in science competitions in high school while juggling the most rigorous academic load offered, participating in varsity sports, working, and participating in an assortment of other extra-curricular activities. As I write this review on the sunniest, summer day in July, she is working on the drafts for the INTEL Talent Search. You inspired a young impressible teenager that anything is possible. Thank you!

I have been reading Science News for close to 40 years since I discovered it by accident in the periodicals section of my local library. Its succinct format and quality of information provides a service I've found no where else. It has helped me be a more informed citizen.

Science News provides current scientific information to share with my students. Young, pre-teen students are so eager to learn more about their world, and Science News offers everything I need to springboard into a unit of study. Science News makes science relevant and real, not just a sci-fi/imaginatin world. It helps me to convince my students that Science is LIFE.

Although I cannot afford a weekly subscription to SCIENCE NEWS print publication, I do receive the weekly email as well as general news from the Society for Science & the Public in order to keep up with important news and developments in the scientific world. If I COULD afford a weekly subscription to SCIENCE NEWS, I would DEFINITELY subscribe. Thanks, SSP!

My daughter was one of the finalist of 2014 ISEF. One of the teachers suggested that I should volunteer as interpreter because I speak Spanish. What a great experience! I got to help a girl from Colombia who was presenting her ideas for a Cube Sat. Since I am a computer engineer I enjoyed the whole time. I helped a second day receiving children visiting the fair from public schools around LA and it was a very good experience too. Everything was very organized and they treated volunteers nicely: free conmemorative tshirts, delicious breakfast and lunch and they always made you feel really appreciated. Will do it again!

This year I participated in Intel STS as well as another fair, and Society for Science and the Public made both experiences fantastic. The impeccable organization allowed me to focus on meeting professional scientists and other interested students, broadening my understanding and appreciation of a variety of topics. In addition, SSP's publications are filled with fascinating articles that pique my interest and keep me abreast of contemporary research. I only wish I had discovered their programs sooner!

This past year, I had the opportunity to participate in two of Society for Science & the Public's high school research competitions (Intel STS and Intel ISEF). My experience with SSP has been nothing short of amazing. The organization not only offers the two most incredible science research competitions available to high school students, but also provides two science magazines (Science News and Science News for Students) with up-to-date and fascinating articles. SSP has a tremendously positive impact on middle and high school students and their interests in science, technology, engineering, and math because they want to make science relevant, stimulating, and fun-- and they are very successful at their goal. Society for Science & the Public is achieving what few (if any) other organizations can achieve-- they are connecting with students, engaging them with science, and giving them the opportunity to share their discoveries with the world. I can't think of a more rewarding, wonderful organization, and I'm so grateful to have had the chance to work with them over the past year.

Society for Science and the Public has proven to be unparalleled in its efforts to encourage young people to engage with scientific research. As a participant in the SSP-affiliated research competitions, I found that SSP gave access to a host of free resources, including its Science News and Science News for Students publications that I regularly use. Whenever I contacted them with questions or concerns, whether it was before, during, or after the competition, the SSP staff was happy to help. I hope to have more interaction with SSP in the near future!

I have personally found the Society for Science and the Public to be an outstandingly impactful organization. As an alumnus of a variety of their student-oriented programs, I have first-hand experience of the extent to which the SSP has been able to promote the sciences in education and provide exceptional experiences for the students involved; it can and has been life-changing.

SSP provides outstanding independent research opportunities for students with a focus in the sciences. Over the years, I have witnessed students at the high school I teach at approach ISEF with a great deal of excitement, stating that it is the "single best opportunity afforded to students at our school" and it does please me that it is available for those top science students.

In recent years, I've become aware that ISEF is viewed in a similar manner by students, not only across the country, but throughout the World. It is the premier science competition for students and the event they talk about throughout the year.

Broadcom Masters is stimulating a similar interest in our younger students and, I hope, motivating them to pursue ISEF in their "later" years.

Hi. I'm from Colombia. The effort that you people do, is very helpful for all of us in a world without frontiers. The bet for the science is something that our society don't really appreciate in all their extents.
Thank you, for all the good work. I hope you can keep it that way !

I've read Science News since I was in High School. It was in our library but I decided to subscribe. When the first Mariner images came back from Mars I had them in my hands, via my S/N before it became big news in the genral media. I've been a member/subscriber off and on over the years as time and situations permitted. SSP is a gateway to the harder stuff - science of all disciplines. Checking in with S/N and SSP is a great way for me 50+ years from high school to keep my intellect alive and curious and informed. I'm sure it inspires young people now as it did when I was in HS.

The Society For Science & The Public is performing yeoman service to the American (and probably non-American) public in covering, in a timely fashion, with brilliant journalism by experts in each area, scientific research in every field, as published in Science News. Given the sad state of science literacy in the US, it is nothing short of miraculous that an organization could successfully undertake to bring science to the populace in easily comprehensible form. We have a subscription & try to urge all our friends to subscribe as well, since a knowledge of science is essential to navigate a 21st-century world. Personally, I believe this magazine should be required reading in high schools. I suspect we'll see a lot more STEM candidates if young people have the kind of access to science that the Society provides.

The Society for Science provides excellent support for independent STEM research in the form of the International Science and Engineering Fair as well as the BROADCOM Masters program, to name just a few. Without the Society for Science, thousands of students each year would not be able to share their science research with the entire globe, thus promoting one of the few globally active student collaborations on the planet.

In 1979, I was one of the top 40 winners in the Westinghouse competition, run by SSP. I had been motivated to enter when I learned that an earlier student of my mentor at University of Maryland had made the top 40. Participation in the competition changed my life.

Making the top 40 was affirming, but what really made the big difference was being motivated to enter the competition in the first place. The research I did (in astronomy) gave me a direction and a chance to excel. My project probably got me into MIT and Caltech (I went to MIT).

My experience made me a life-long believer in engaging youngsters in science. I volunteer in local science fairs every year as a judge, and encouraged both of my children to enter (my youngest went to ISTEF). At MIT I routinely hired undergraduates with science fair backgrounds, because these were individuals who had the motivation to take a project from start to finish.

If you want to have hope for the future, all you have to do is go meet with the students participating in SSP events.

I was a Broadcom Master which is a program run by SSP. It was really life-changing and I made a lot of new friends across the country. SSP has really inspired me to look forward to working in STEM related careers in the future. Thanks SSP for all you have done!

SEriously !!!

Some usefull ideas...
for free ...
One should read, to see if a NON-Profit organization is working and building
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in this way

When I was a student I studied seriously and my teachers taught me with great love and devotion responding positively to my curiosity. I became a teacher and they have given me the desire to work seriously and with love. I am grateful.

With all the ignorance creating more and more tension between people, promoting the science and educating people is the only way to help healing the world. Art and education are the only way toward peace and health.

When I was in high school, I was a promising student - passionate about the sciences - who came from very challenging circumstances. My mother was mentally ill and my father had only a fifth grade education. I was the fourth of five children, so they never could have afforded to send me to college, much less help me through the process of applying and choosing. A teacher at my public high school suggested I apply for a summer research scholarship, which I won and completed. Another teacher suggested I enter my work from that experience in what was then the Westinghouse Science Talent Search, which was administered by this nonprofit. I placed in the top ten winners, which came with a four year college scholarship to the school of my choice. Because I won this competition, I was invted to attend schools to which I had and had never applied, all on nearly full scholarship. I graduated from a highly competitive university with degrees in engineering and less than $1000 in college debt, thanks to this nonprofit. I practiced as an engineer for many years and then decided to enter the field of K-12 education in order help other students who come from challenging circumstances change their lives with science education. I earned a Ph.D. in science education and have led several foundation and government funded science and engineering education projects for underserved and disadvantaged K-12 students. I can say with complete confidence that my life would have been quite different if not for the opportunities afforded me by the Westinghouse Science Talent Search and this nonprofit. I work to change the lives of other students because this nonprofit changed mine.

I was given the chance to showcase my high school research over the years because of the tremendous work this group does to put on the Intel ISEF and Intel STS competitions. Because of my participation, I made new friends, helped pay for college, and ultimately decided my career goal and college major. After winning a few major scholarships from ISEF, I was brought into contact with the school I am currently attending, Drexel. This changed my entire plan for undergraduate study and also paid for my attendance. I would not be where I am today, with the friends I have, without the Society for Science and the Public.

SSP understands the critical performance of getting young people involved in research. We are producing too many people with a superficial understanding of science, who ultimately find careers as bartenders etc. Research is the key to the new science that the USA needs and the world needs.

Its life changing! I found that this really changed my high school experience and my scientific future.

I was a participant in the Intel STS and I can honestly say I would not be where I am today had it not been for SSP.

I was a participant in several programs run by the Society for Science & the Public, and I can honestly say that they were life changing. I had always been interested in science but always felt that I didn't have the skill or talent to pursue my dreams. SSP gave the opportunity to travel the world and meet other students with my similar interests. I was constantly finding role models and being motivated by the famous scientists I got to meet through SSP. ISEF and STS, the programs I was involved in, impressed upon me how important it was to pursue my science research dreams. I found the best community of scholars and thinkers I have ever met, and their recognition of me gave me the funds to attend college. Without the SSP, I would not be who I am today - a successful student and scientist, working at the best universities in the world.

I can honestly say that the programs that SSP provides to the community changed my life. As a student with a learning disability I had little hope of pursuing my dream of becoming a professional scientist. Even many of my teachers encouraged me to 'have more realistic career ideas'. Programs like the Science Fair and STS provided a much needed voice of encouragement in my life. SSP not only encouraged me to complete my own experiments but to present them to the scientific community are part of the competitions they hosted. Through the science fair I was able to meet up with scientists who were willing to look beyond the weakness of my learning disability to mentor the inquisitive youth. Through STS I was able to gain the funds to take my love of science to the next level and attend college. An opportunity that without this type of support would have been nearly impossible. Because of the SSP mission my life was changed. I am no longer the student that teachers didn't expect to graduate from middle school let alone high school. I am now considered one of the top graduate students at my university and my research is slowly changing the world for the better.

I've faithfully read Science News for almost 20 years now, and there's just no other magazine like it in the industry. It doesn't "dumb down" research summaries. At the same time, the language and explanation are very understandable even to a layperson. (I am a professional without a medical degree, but who works in the medical industry.)

I was so happy when the journal moved on-line. I hope this group continues to provide public information for many years to come!