My First Time in a Biology Class: WiSci 2017 Guest Post

This is a guest post from the 2017 WiSci Girls STEAM Camp which took place in Malawi, Africa. WiSci is a public-private partnership effort between Girl Up, the U.S. Department of State, Intel, Google, NASA, and other partners.
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By: Monde Sililo, 18, Zambia

My favorite lesson at the WiSci camp was the lesson presented by American Society for Microbiology (ASM). Before entering the lab, I had so many mixed feelings about the session because I had never taken a biology class at school. Immediately after settling down in the lab, the instructor mentioned we were going to focus on microbiology in agriculture. This motivated me to participate and pay attention during the session as I intend to study Agriculture Engineering for my undergraduate studies next year. I had an amazing session and what I learnt can be easily applied to my country, Zambia, as agriculture is the backbone of our economy. I believe the new knowledge and skills I have gained during the camp have provided a foundation for my studies and given an opportunity to share this information, the knowledge can be used in different sectors of agriculture in my country. I no longer associate biology with the unknown and I seek more ways to expand my knowledge of this subject.

Additionally, the WiSci camp in Malawi has been a great experience for me as I have made new friends, been motivated by many amazing people to work hard in my STEAM career (Agriculture Engineering) and most importantly I learnt a lot and improved my knowledge in STEAM fields.