March 2, 2020
THE MEDIUM
The Voice of The University of Toronto Mississauga | themedium.ca
Vol 46, No. 18
CAGIS comes to UTM for International Day of Women and Girls in science MP Iqra Khalid and Dr. Bhairavi Shankar give speeches at the event for young women in STEM ISIK VERA SENEL ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR The Canadian Association for Girls in Science (CAGIS) came together with the Canadian Space Agency on February 11 to celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. CAGIS is a volunteer-based and non-profit organization that just recently established a Mississauga chapter. With 11 chapters throughout the country, CAGIS was founded by Dr. Larissa Vingilis-Jaremko when she was only nine years old. The organization is directed at young girls from ages seven to 16 and aims to encourage them towards science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers. CAGIS holds events once a month and February’s event, the Junior Astronauts Challenge, was held at the University of Toronto Mississauga. The event began with a speech from Iqra Khalid, the Member of Parliament for Mississauga-Erin Mills. “Young women in STEM, our federal government, our Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, loves you guys. Our government loves you guys,” said Khalid. “That is because you guys are the future of our country and our planet and we want to make sure that you have each and every opportunity that you need to be able to succeed and to do well.” “So, whether it’s learning how to code, or whether it’s to go into engineering or to be a mathematician or to any of the STEM fields, it’s really important that you are able to achieve all that you desire to do bigger and better things for this wonderful country and for this wonderful planet,” added Khalid.
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Comment
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Features
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Urfa Arain, a Ph.D. candidate in neuroscience at UTM, is the coordinator of CAGIS’ Mississauga chapter and gave a speech introducing CAGIS and its objectives. “We provide opportunities in different areas across STEM, and we allow you by being the bridge between the professions and you,” said Arain. “In November, I had the honor of having a lot of young girls like yourselves come to my lab, and they learned about fruit flies,” continued Arain. “So, they learned about what we do as Ph.D. students and why we study tiny little fruit flies.” Dr. Bhairavi Shankar, the CEO and founder of Indus Space, is a space scientist who explores planetary surfaces through satellite data. Dr. Shankar’s speech began with a discussion focused on female astronauts, highlighting the Governor-General, Julie Payette, and Dr. Roberta Bondar, the first Canadian woman in space. Dr. Shankar also presented a special video from Dr. Jenni Sidey-Gibbons, who is in the current class of Canadian astronauts and is training at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas. “So, when I was growing up, I was very fortunate to benefit from an amazing role model that we have here in Canada, Dr. Roberta Bondar, who is Canada’s first female astronaut,” said Dr. Sidey-Gibbons. “She flew in space when I was only a few years old and she inspired me to discover new things, explore, and really take advantage of the amazing opportunities that I have as a Canadian both on this planet and beyond it,” continued Dr. Sidey-Gibbons. Science continued on page 3
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