Collective Uplift: UL Research Institutes Hosts an Evening With Girl Up

On Oct. 30, UL Research Institutes (ULRI) hosted a salon event talking about the importance of equity in STEM and highlighting the partnership between Girl Up and ULRI’s Office of Research Experiences & Education (OREE).

In 2023, UNICEF, the United Nations agency for children, released a strategy and investment case for girls saying, “The research is unequivocal: When girls are valued by society, they realize their full potential, their families grow stronger, communities thrive, and economies prosper.” Yet, according to Girl Up, only 1 in 3 students enrolled in STEM-related fields globally are female.

Founded in 2010 by the United Nations Foundation, Girl Up serves 315,000 girls and youth leaders in 155 countries and all 50 states in the U.S. The programs engage, train, and mobilize girls and young people of all identities, and are centered around the voices of and issues facing girls around the world, including broadening access and opportunity for girls in STEAM.

There is a great synergy with the work done by OREE to create access to resources and opportunities for girls and women in safety science. Earlier this year, Kelly Keena, Ph.D., senior director of OREE, was invited to join the Girl Up Advisory Board as an expert in STEAM education and was a guest panelist at the Girl Up USA Leadership Summit in June.

Committed to a shared mission, OREE is partnering with Girl Up to support its STEAM for Social Good program that culminates with a Women in Science (WiSci) camp. Each year, 100 girls travel to different global locations to engage in the applied work of STEAM through projects to solve a local issue. This 10-day experience that costs nothing for the girls who attend includes time with women in STEAM professions and as My Lo Cook, Girl Up chief program officer, noted, “many, many, many, many selfies.” It’s a time to embrace their identities while building knowledge, skills, and practice using science, technology, art, and math to engineer solutions in a local, relevant, meaningful way. In 2025, OREE will sponsor and collaborate with Girl Up on WiSci South Africa.

The salon event hosted at ULRI’s Evanston office included a panel of four Chicago-area, Girl Up youth leaders ranging from a sophomore in high school to a senior in college. These four young women were joined by Asra Hassan, lead research scientist with ULRI’s Materials Discovery Research Institute (MDRI), as the moderator to discuss the definitions of leadership and what adults may misperceive about the younger female generation.

When asked about leadership, Girl Up leaders shared these powerful descriptions: 

• “Someone who knows when to inspire and when to listen.”
• “Organizing people for change in an inclusive and engaging manner.”
• “The ability to create other future leaders.” 

A common theme throughout the conversation was the importance of having one another across the vast network of girls to connect with and lean on, along with the leadership development that Girl Up provides in spaces that honor young women and are inclusive of all.

In a second conversation of the evening, Keena discussed the importance of STEAM programming for girls that provide access. She stressed the value of a collective impact, or collective uplift, from organizations working toward the same goal oriented to a “future that is just and equitable that benefits all people” — powerfully stated by Girl Up’s mission. Cook added, “These are boats ready to go, what we need to do is be the wave that will lift them and the lighthouse, so they don’t get lost. And that’s it. They will chart their own path into those dark waters and be more fearless than our leaders.”