By REBECCA DUBE
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
For Larissa Vingilis-Jaremko, not getting called on helped her find her calling.
She remembers that moment from elementary school quite vividly. Her science teacher needed someone in the class to set up an experiment from a kit quickly, so she asked for volunteers.
Nine-year-old Larissa's hand shot up. She'd always loved science, even though it made her a bit of an oddball among the other girls who dreamed of being cheerleaders or rock stars. In fact, she had the same science kit at home and could have set up the experiment blindfolded.
But the teacher passed over Larissa's eagerly raised hand. "No, no, Larissa," she said. "I need a boy to do this."
Such a moment might dash cold water on young dreams. But for Larissa, it just fanned the flames.
"I felt a little bit of outrage, because I knew I could do it. I felt she was saying something about all females and science. And I knew she was wrong, because I had all these wonderful role models," recalls the now 23-year-old University of Toronto student.
So at age nine, she founded the Canadian Association for Girls in Science, a group dedicated to encouraging young girls to explore science, math and technology. Over the past 14 years, Vingilis-Jaremko has become a science role model for thousands of girls.
Her leadership role has been recognized by the Women's Executive Network, which chose her as one of seven Future Leaders in its annual list of the Top 100 most powerful women in Canada.
She estimates that CAGIS has reached about 4,000 girls since it began, and now has about 600 members across the country. Local chapters meet monthly and give girls the chance to learn first-hand from scientists about everything from bridge engineering to the physics of figure skating.
Vingilis-Jaremko is also pursuing a career in science herself. She graduated last spring with a degree in life sciences from U of T, where she studied biology and psychology with an emphasis on the science of visual cognition. She's now taking a year off before graduate school, working part-time on a research project on women in academic medicine.
What Ms. Vingilis-Jaremko likes most about science is the constant testing of hypotheses, and the idea that there is so much to be discovered. "I find the brain really intriguing," she says. "There's still a lot we don't know."
This year she is also taking some time to pursue her other hobbies, including tennis and flamenco dancing. One stereotype she finds herself fighting is the idea among young girls that an interest in science dooms one to a super-geeky, no-life-outside-the-lab existence.
"Everyone thinks you have to be completely immersed, but that's not the case. Most people have a variety of other interests," she says.
Her group tries to give girls hands-on experience with science and technology while showing how it is used in the real world. The most rewarding part, she says, is watching at CAGIS meetings as girls' interest in science blossoms, along with their self-confidence.
"Often girls start out very shy. They sit at the back," she says. "To watch their progress is a really wonderful thing. They come to the front, they start asking questions."
And when a girl raises her hand, you can be sure Vingilis-Jaremko will call on her.
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