Team:CLS CLSG UK/Inclusion
Credit - Hannah Busing@unsplash
Inclusion and diversity
This year our iGEM team consists of both City of London School (CLS) and City of London School for Girls (CLSG) students and it is the first year that our schools have joined to pursue this synthetic biology competition. We recognise that we are incredibly privileged to be in full time education as many young girls across the world do not have this opportunity, so we felt that we held a responsibility to encourage the idea of women in STEM. As we were unable to hold an in person workshop about iGEM, it was important for us to show the video about synthetic biology to the young girls at CLSG, as we hoped this would encourage conversations about the future of biology as well as species endangerment. Sure enough, we had several responses from students who were excited by and interested in participating in iGEM and learning more about our project. With the world of science evolving so quickly, many perspectives are necessary no matter the gender and considering only a small fraction of those working in engineering and research are women, we needed to get across the idea that girls should have no doubts about whether they'd have a place in a scientific career area, because there is a need for women to enter these fields. Hopefully maintaining a City of London School and City of London School for Girls partnership in future iGEM teams will continue to inspire young girls' interest in STEM and reiterate the fact that they do indeed have a place within the STEM community.
In the past the CLS teams have not included CLSG and they are unable to enter on their own due to their inability to get biosafety clearance on their labs. This year, by joining forces, our team has been greatly strengthened.
Of course, diversity and inclusion are different but intrinsically linked. While diversity is simply the differences and similarities between individuals and groups, inclusion is the attitude and environment created, but we felt that a diverse environment is a healthier one and one that promotes inclusion. So, when approaching constructing our team we understood the importance of both diversity and inclusion, by operating entrance into the team entirely meritocratically we also took into account the ethos of our schools which is all about creating a healthy educational environment that is both diverse and inclusive. The school’s vision of: Kind, Aware, Ready sums up the approach that we carried with us.
Kind: A considerate community of people who care for others as much as themselves.
We realise that in order to create the best environment for working we must ensure that it is a healthy and safe environment where everyone can be themselves and express themselves however they feel. By fostering this safe environment we are able to ensure that ideas and conversations flow; this has been crucial in our success this year as it allowed us to bounce ideas off each other, experiment and think outside the box.
Aware: A diverse community that understands our world.
With our schools located in the centre of London we possess a diverse pupil body who come from all over London and from a wide variety of socio-economic backgrounds. An important part of creating this environment is the school bursary fund which allows those who cannot afford the school an ability to attend through reduced or absence of fees. We understood the importance of this and so donated a portion of the money we fundraised for our team to this fund to help ensure that the next years of CLS pupils have the same opportunities that we have, no matter their economic status.
As well as this, we have included a map of all of our team members. London is a diverse and multicultural city, and with our team spread right across it we hope that our team is a reflection on the city and these qualities.
Just to note that we couldn’t fit all our team into this photo (a couple of members live way out in the middle of nowhere)
Ready: A forward-looking community prepared for the 21st century.
iGEM is all about looking forward, using new techniques at the cutting edge of research to try and solve problems that are affecting us now and in the future. As such the iGEM competition and teams must always be ready and open to new ideas. This year that has been shown to the extreme, taking a normally in person event and turning it virtual for a global community is a feat of excellence that requires readiness and creativity from all sides. So while a global pandemic is a very edge of field demonstration of our readiness, the fact that this year's competition is happening at all is a testament to the importance of being ready.