From: Out in STEM Date: June 26, 2024 Subject: Summer & Fall Updates
Queers Read This!
Hey queers! Hope you are all having a wonderful summer! Happy pride month to all who celebrate. Cheers to another year of parades, cake, and old white people getting angry on the internet. We have a lot of updates and cool things going on for the summer and fall, so please read on if you’re interested (I promise it won’t be very long - I'm too tired these days taking care of mice!).
This Summer
Thank you to all of you who submitted the feedback form last month, updating us on your summer plans! Many of our members are doing some really cool things this summer and we wanted to take the time to highlight them!
• Brianna (Co-Pres) is going back home to Georgia and on a republican yacht trip, teaching swim lessons.
• Rainah (Co-Pres) is also going back home to ride with the dolphins.
• Sree (Secretary, and your’s truly) is doing research this summer through the National Institute of Health’s Summer Internship Program. I am working at the Institute of Neurological Disorders & Stroke, doing computational neuroscience work studying neural mechanisms of granule cells in the cerebellum of transgenic mice in reward-seeking tasks.
• Dean (Business Manager) is staying in Rochester, working at the Laboratory for Laser Electronics (LLE).
• Rhea is doing an internship this summer at Wells Fargo in Charlotte, NC, as part of the Analytics & Data Program, which she obtained through attending the Grace Hopper Conference last fall in September.
Please fill out the quick survey linked above to let us know your availability for next semester! The survey will be open through summer so you can update it if any changes arise, but please let us know what it is as of now. We want to accommodate as many members as we can when scheduling our regular Fall GMMs!
- oSTEM Conference:Interest Form
Registration for the 2024 oSTEM Conference is now open! Last year we had a great showing at our first national conference, and we are working hard to work out travel logistics/finances to ensure strong UR representation once again!! This year, the conference will be in Portland, Oregon from October 17th-20th. Because we want to get started on conference preparations as soon as possible, we ask that you fill out the interest form immediately if you are interested in attending. Priority will be given to those who fill out the form early, so please fill it out asap if you want to go! - Website Browse through our CCC website to take advantage of our compiled Resources & Opportunities (scholarships, conferences, etc.), read more about our iconic (and brand new) E-Board, and find other general oSTEM links. The website is regularly updated, if you spot any issues or know of an R&O we haven’t included, our Feedback Form is always open!
In The News
• Anti-Trans Law Overturned in Florida:Link
On Tuesday, June 11th, a federal judge in Florida declared parts of the state’s trans healthcare ban unconstitutional. Judge Robert L. Hinckle, in his 150 page opinion on FL SB254, stated “The State of Florida can regulate as needed but cannot flatly deny transgender individuals safe and effective medical treatment — treatment with medications routinely provided to others with the state’s full approval so long as the purpose is not to support the patient’s transgender identity.” Hinckle’s ruling overturns laws from May 2023 that banned hormone therapy and puberty blockers for trans minors, and imposed restrictions on how all trans people, including adults, could receive care. The law also mandated that trans individuals could only seek hormone therapy exclusively from physicians and required in person written consent from the patient, prohibiting the use of sources like telehealth to receive care. • Newly Crowned Miss Maryland First Transgender Woman To Receive Title:Link
As a fellow resident of Maryland, I thought this news was quite cool. 31-year-old Bailey Anne Kennedy, the newly-crowned Miss Maryland USA, made history on June 1st by being the first Transgender Woman and Asian American to attain the title in the annual pageant. While transgender women have been able to compete in the pageants since 2013, a rule prohibiting anyone over 28 to compete was eliminated this year. With Kennedy now holding the title, she hopes to spotlight her communities, providing an example for minority girls and LGBTQIA+ individuals to see themselves through her journey. Kennedy will be competing in the Miss USA Pageant this August and hopes to advance to the Miss Universe Pageant as well.
See you this Fall!!
FORM
oSTEM General Feedback Form
This is oSTEM's main form for you to submit any comments, questions, suggestions, opportunity submissions, and/or feedback. You can choose to submit anonymously (CCC may ask you to log in, but that's just to ensure it's from a UR student, not a random internet person) or share your name/email.
If you run into any issues with the form, please email us at uofr.ostem@gmail.com so we can fix it right away.
