Join the STAT 23 Summer Program

Are you a teacher looking to expand your knowledge of biotechnology, not only for yourself but for your students? Then you won’t want to miss this new professional development opportunity from the Virginia Western STEM department.

STAT 23 SUMMER PROGRAM

Teachers are a powerful part of our region’s biotechnology ecosystem. To continue to strengthen the bridge between Virginia Western Community College and our K-12 partners, the Virginia Western STEM department is continuing our professional development STEM Academy for Teachers (STAT) series this summer. 

The on-campus program is designed to advance your knowledge of biotechnology, help you incorporate biotechnology into your STEM curriculum, and introduce your students (at any grade level) to vast biotechnology career opportunities.

During STAT 23, we will offer several biotechnology courses, mathematics courses, and an information technology course over a range of dates from June 12th to July 31st.

Thanks to tuition assistance provided by Virginia Career Works, these professional development courses are available at no cost for teachers.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN STAT 23

Contact Heather Lindberg at hlindberg@virginiawestern.edu for more information.

From VWCC to the UK: Local researcher to present COVID Findings at the World Congress for Undergraduate Research

Two Virginia Western biotechnology courses and a 10-week internship turned into a life changing journey for one Fincastle native. 

A biology major at the University of Virginia, Skylar Gay’s journey into biotechnology started at Virginia Western Community College as a dually enrolled high school student. Under the guidance of Dr. Heather Lindberg, Skylar took part in VWCC’s SEA-PHAGES program that captured her imagination and sparked an interest in biology and biotechnology. In Dr. Lindberg’s lab, Skylar gained hands-on experience in lab research and gene sequencing.  

“Dean Amy White and Dr. Heather Lindberg are important mentors for me,” Skylar said, “Before studying at VWCC, I planned a career in musical theater. That will always be a passion for me, but my experiences have affirmed my desire to focus on epidemiology. VWCC uncovered a passion that I didn’t even know I had!”

In 2020, while searching for available opportunities during the COVID lockdowns, Skylar discovered the National Science Foundation’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates program. Through NSF-REU she applied for a 10-week remote internship at the University of Georgia in the lab of Dr. Jonathan Arnold. Using the skills she learned at VWCC, Skylar researched COVID transmission rates using genetic data and statistical analysis. 

To assist with her statistical and genomic analysis, Skylar developed software in the R programing language which is used primarily for statistical computing and graphics. Her software, which she named transRate© is the first computational method to estimate transmission rates using a cladistic approach for genomic data.

Her 10-week internship turned into a 2.5-year research project when she was invited to continue her research under Dr. Arnold’s guidance. While there, Skylar traced COVID variants to a common ancestor, gleaning insights about transmission and mutation.  In reconstructing the phylogenetic tree and applying timepoints to her data, she learned which populations had high transmission rates and discovered that transmission was much higher within populations than between populations. 

Skylar is preparing to present her new technology and her research findings at the World Congress on Undergraduate Research at the University of Warwick in Birmingham, UK in April. In addition, she is the first author on a scholarly article set to be published later this year in a scientific journal in collaboration with Dr. Jonathan Arnold, Dr. Liang Liu, and Dr. Jialin Yang.

“I would not be where I am today without my experiences at Virginia Western Community College,” Skylar said. “I experiences I had there shaped my understanding of research and prepared me for later studies.” 

Skylar plans to add a second major in public health to her biology degree and hopes to continue her research at a Ph.D. program where she is interested in combining bioinformatics with wet lab techniques.  Her goal is to influence policy makers in creating legislation that protects public health in the event of another epidemic or pandemic by modeling the transmission of viruses within and between populations. 

Launch Your Paid STEM Internship Program with Funding from GO Virginia

Are you a growing STEM company looking for fresh talent? Then you won’t want to miss a new opportunity from VA Bio-Connect designed to kick-start your internship program!

STEM2VA Summer Internship Program

VA Bio-Connect, a collaborative project of Virginia Bio, has launched STEM2VA a Virginia Statewide Lifescience Internship Program. Through STEM2VA biotech and healthcare employers can select one or more undergraduate or graduate students for a 10-week, full time summer internship at your company. Employers will receive matching funding from GO Virginia to help support the internship summer stipend. 

Stipends are important for attracting competitive students, but funding internships can be difficult. The new STEM2VA program is intended to fill the gap. Participating companies commit to compensating interns at least $2,500 over the course of the internship and Virginia Bio will match with an additional $2,500. Interns will earn $5,000 while gaining critical experience and providing meaningful contributions to your company.

How to Participate in STEM2VA

Employer registration is simple and takes only about a minute to complete! Fill out the four-question employer registration form to get started. Registered employers will be provided with a review portal link to begin reviewing and interviewing competitive student applications. Indicating interest now will not commit you to accepting a student if you are not able to identify a candidate with the appropriate qualifications.

The employer registration deadline is February 10, 2023. The ten-week internship experience will run from June 5, 2023 – August 11, 2023.

This is an excellent opportunity to retain Virginia talent, train the upcoming workforce, and identify potential future hires. Connect with a talented, diverse, statewide workforce pipeline and create broader awareness of your presence in Virginia through STEM2VA.

Contact holtom.elizabeth@vabio.org or hunter.briana@vabio.org with any questions. 

FIRST Lego League Coaches Workshop – July 30 & August 5

FIRST Lego League is a worldwide robotics competition for 3rd-9th graders using Lego EV3 robots. Kids solve programming and building challenges, present research to a panel of judges in a creative format regarding this year’s hydrodynamic theme, perform a team-based impromptu challenge, and share their design process while celebrating science, technology, engineering, math and healthcare!

The RBTC hosts a tournament the 2nd week of November for our region. If you think you might like to help start a team or join a team, and want to find out more, the Tuxedo Pandas and the Science Museum of Western Virginia will host two free information and hands-on clinics. We even have some equipment and funds available to get new teams going!

Questions about the event? Contact Krystian Jones.

WHEN:

Sunday, July 30, 2017
Saturday, August 5, 2017

TIME:
2:00pm-5:00pm

WHERE:Science Museum of Western Virginia (One Market Square SE, Roanoke, VA 24011-1429

 

 

 

RBTC Launches Resources to Connect STEM Community

The Roanoke Blacksburg Technology Council is pleased to launch two new email lists to continue to build awareness and support STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) activities in the Roanoke-Blacksburg and SW VA Region.  These two important new mail lists are related, but different in their purpose:

  • [STEM-Discuss] – The RBTC STEM Forum open discussion list (to connect and ask questions).
  • [STEM-Announce]  – The RBTC STEM Forum announcements (read only) email list.

The [STEM-Discuss] mail list is a simple, free, open mail list that anyone can join to connect with regional STEM experts, ask questions and get help.    Simple and quick way that STEM educators, experts and parents can all connect and share.  Sign up here:  lists.rbtc.tech/mailman/listinfo/stem-discuss

The [STEM-Announce] is a little more than just a mail list.  It is a STEM event announcement submission system, a calendar of STEM events, and a email list all in one.   You can think of [STEM-Announce] as an announcements (read only) mail list, but it takes community STEM event submissions from the community event webapp NextThreeDays.com and mirrors these events in a SWVA STEM Events google calendar that you can also subscribe to.

If this seems too complicated, just sign-up on the [STEM-Announce] mail list and you’re good.  However, if you’re a gadget geek and prefer calendar events to remind you of what’s going on, you may want to only subscribe to the google calendar view.

Alternatively, if you don’t want to join or add anything to your deives, you can always just pop in and view all upcoming and previous STEM events by clicking on the either the google calendar link or the email list’s “Archives” link to see what’s going on around town.

In the Community: VWCC Women in STEM Mentoring Program

At a national level, economic projections indicate that by 2018 the U.S. will be saturated with millions of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) jobs – many of them left unfilled. Even now, the percentage of women in STEM careers is dramatically less then men in these fields. Virginia Western Community College (VWCC) in Roanoke is a forerunner in a national movement seeking to reverse this trend and help more young women get a firm footing on a path to a successful STEM career.

The VWCC Women in STEM initiative includes the Mentoring Program, a campus club, a speaker series, a campus workgroup with faculty and staff, and relationships with business partners. The initiative is focused on:

  • Providing a supportive environment for women’s STEM education
  • Assisting women in educational resources
  • Helping facilitate career networking opportunities for women

The mentors that are paired up with students through the Women in STEM Mentoring Program are local women involved in STEM related fields.  We are proud to say many of these mentors are RBTC members. Keep up the great work ladies!

Check out the videos below to learn more about this excellent initiative and view or download this resource (PDF):

 

Volunteers Needed for FIRST Robotics Competition in Blacksburg – March 12-13

Volunteers – especially referees – are needed for assistance with one of the Premier STEM programs in Virginia! FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is recognized as the premier high school engineering challenge. Teams of students, working closely with teachers and volunteer mentors, have six weeks to conceptualize, design, build, program, modify and test a robot to participate in a competition that changes each year.

This year’s big FIRST Robotics tournament will be held for Blacksburg the weekend of March 12-13.  Come volunteer for this great STEM event and enjoy seeing what 36 different high schools have created!

To Volunteer:
Register online as a volunteer here: https://my.firstinspires.org/FIRSTPortal/Login/VIMS_Login.aspx
Then FIRST does a background check for some of the positions, not all.
You’ll apply for an event:

  • Select FRC – FIRST Robotics Competition
  • Select USA
  • Specify Zip code of 24060

You should find the event “FRC | CHS District – Southwest Virginia Event | Blacksburg  VA | Mar 11, 2016 – Mar 13, 2016”

Select that event, then you’ll see a questionnaire about preferred positions.  Some positions require online training, and they’ll send you links for that once they’ve sorted out who will actually fill what position. Thank you for volunteering your time to help promote the technology base in our Roanoke Blacksburg Technology Council!

Questions? Email: Gordie Zeigler, gzeigler@sycomtech.com