Abstract

The goal of the project described here was to communicate to students that STEM as a career is accessible and that struggling in your early academic career does not equal failure in your future by demystifying the idea that career paths of those in STEM are straightforward ones. To achieve this goal, I created a four-episode podcast series called STEM is not a Straightforward Path and posted it on Spotify. Each episode of this podcast focused on telling the story of a successful individual in a STEM field, focusing on their academic journey, obstacles they faced in it, and the research that they are doing now, with an overarching theme for listeners to take away from each episode. Interviewees featured in this series were Dr. Luiza Notini, an Assistant Professor at the University of Delaware, Michael “Mike” Alowitz, an environmental consultant, Dr. Andrew Kitchen, an Associate Professor at the University of Iowa, and Dr. Danielle Land, a postdoctoral associate at Michigan State University and an Assistant Programming Director at the Hanson Center of Communication at the University of Iowa. This podcast was advertised across the University of Iowa campus and yielded positive outcomes. Initial listeners of the podcast found the podcast an interesting and positive perspective, which achieved its goal of addressing the mental turmoil that comes with being in STEM.

Keywords

STEM, Podcast

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