Creating Chemistry

BY | GREG SKOOG (SJU ’89)

Take eight curious women. Introduce science in combination with the liberal arts. Apply pressure in the crucible of a rigorous academic curriculum while carefully adding supportive sisterhood and the empowerment of a women’s college to serve as a catalyst.

OBSERVE REACTIONS AFTER 10 YEARS.

Spring 2021 | 19

ANNE HYLDEN ’10

CSB MAJOR:

Chemistry

HIGHEST DEGREE EARNED:

Master’s, Inorganic Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania

CURRENT ROLE:

Chemistry and Math Instructor GameFace Tutoring Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

KATIE HARTJES CAMPBELL ’10

CSB MAJOR:

Biochemistry

HIGHEST DEGREE EARNED:

Ph.D., Molecular Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Mayo Graduate School

CURRENT ROLE:

Asst. Prof. of Interprofessional Education St. Catherine University St. Paul, Minnesota

SARAH PARKER BUCHERT ’10

CSB MAJOR:

Chemistry

HIGHEST DEGREE EARNED:

Master’s, Food Science, Kansas State University

CURRENT ROLE:

Data Steward Global Data Governance Services General Mills Minneapolis, Minnesota

STEPHANIE ROE ’10

CSB MAJOR:

Chemistry

HIGHEST DEGREE EARNED:

Master’s, Teaching, College of St. Scholastica

CURRENT ROLE:

Chemistry Instructor Rockford High School Rockford, Minnesota T ry Googling “women in STEM” and the responses you find will whipsaw back and forth between analysis of the obstacles (girls aren’t conditioned to picture themselves there, and a gender pay gap awaits them when they do …) and profiles of pioneers who’ve bucked the system. It feels daunting. Talk to a cohort of eight Saint Ben’s chemistry and biochemistry alumnae, just over 10 years out from their 2010 graduation, and it doesn’t sound quite so daunting. That’s not to say that chem and biochem aren’t challenging majors. “It’s not an easy road to get a STEM degree,” recalls Courtney Tiegs Ingalsbe ’10. “There will be days you wonder why you thought you could handle three labs in a semester. There will be long days of hard work.” But when offered the chance to grumble about the challenges of being a woman in the chem and biochem programs at CSB/SJU, none of these eight alumnae had a horror story to tell. “I like to think it is because of the welcoming community of CSB/SJU,” says Associate Professor and Chemistry Department Chair Alicia Bossen Peterson ’03, earnestly. For one thing, the department itself is located on the CSB campus. “Twenty-five or so years ago when the Ardolf (Science Center) was built, the chemistry faculty chose to be on the CSB campus to help increase the number of CSB majors,” explains Peterson. “I think this has helped the CSB majors feel more welcome.” Beyond that, there has been a focused effort in the last handful of years to improve gender representation in the faculty. “Since 2009, the number of women faculty in the Chemistry Department has increased,” Peterson confirms. “We now have eight females in the 13 people who teach chemistry courses and labs. In 2009, there were only three tenured or tenure-track female faculty members.” That’s a concerted effort. And while departments like Physics and Computer Science still have work to do in this area – and nearly all academic departments have work to do in improving racial and cultural representation – that work is in progress. And the Chemistry Department success story demonstrates what is possible.

COURTNEY TIEGS INGALSBE ’10

CSB MAJOR:

Biochemistry

HIGHEST DEGREE EARNED:

Bachelor’s

CURRENT ROLE:

Consumer Safety Officer U.S. Food and Drug Association Minneapolis, Minnesota

HADLEY MCINTOSH MARCEK ’10

CSB MAJOR:

Chemistry

HIGHEST DEGREE EARNED:

Ph.D., Environmental Chemistry, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science

CURRENT ROLE:

Science Writer American Chemical Society Washington, D.C.

AMY HOGERTON STADING ’10

CSB MAJOR:

Chemistry

HIGHEST DEGREE EARNED:

Ph.D., Bioanalytical Chemistry, University of Minnesota

CURRENT ROLE:

Chemistry Instructor St. Paul Academy St. Paul, Minnesota

NICOLE GAGNON BOUSU ’10

CSB MAJOR:

Chemistry

HIGHEST DEGREE EARNED:

Ph.D., Chemistry, University of Minnesota

CURRENT ROLE:

Senior Scientist H.B. Fuller Vadnais Heights, Minnesota

A COLLEGE FOR WOMEN

When choosing a college, all eight chose a women’s college, though hardly any chose Saint Ben’s specifically because it’s a women’s college. Looking back, however, each sees the importance.

BOUSU:

I wanted to make sure that I would still be exposed to diverse voices, especially in non-science courses like the first-year symposium and some of the liberal arts courses I knew I would be taking.

ROE:

So the partnership with Saint John’s and the coed academic programs provided nice balance.

MARCEK:

As I have gone to other institutions since CSB, I realize what a special opportunity it is to have gone to a ‘college for women’.

CAMPBELL:

I appreciate the unique value that a women’s college has played in my academic and personal development. I teach at St. Catherine University and can see that value from a faculty perspective.

BUCHERT:

I have much more appreciation for it now. Saint Ben’s is a place where womanhood is celebrated, women are empowered and women lift each other up. During and since college, I have come to realize how rare and special a place like that is.

MARCEK:

My mom went to a college for women and had a fabulous experience. Forty years later there is still a group of six of her friends from college that she regularly talks with. I wanted that.

CHEMICAL REACTIONS

Finding a major is a journey for many college students. For most of this group, it was a fairly short trip. They arrived at Saint Ben’s in love with science and quickly coalesced around chemistry/biochemistry.

STADING:

I really liked chemistry in high school. I thought it made a lot of sense and was fun. I also felt like it had a lot of viable career paths.

HYLDEN:

It’s called the ‘central science’ for a reason. It bridges the gap between theory and application. To understand any natural phenomena on a deep level, you have to know some chemistry. It’s the study of how the universe is put together.

MARCEK:

I liked the intertwining of math and science together.

BOUSU:

I love how chemistry answers questions about the world around us. It’s fascinating to learn about things on a molecular scale that can be applied to our everyday life.

THE PLACE TO BE

For these eight alumnae, Saint Ben’s was an ideal place to pursue an undergraduate degree in science. They found opportunity, support and, counter to the narrative of female underrepresentation in STEM, they found a relatively gender-balanced cohort.

HYLDEN:

While I was in the CSB/SJU chemistry program, I believe it was about 60% men and 40% women. I remember that because when the program was up for re-accreditation, some evaluators interviewed me and a classmate, and they asked about that ratio specifically. Before then, it hadn’t occurred to me to consider myself a minority in the program. I never felt outnumbered, because there were always other female students around. Which is quite different from when my mom went to Saint Ben’s – she was the only woman in her Physical Chemistry class.

INGALSBE:

We were very supportive of one another. The men and women in the biology, chemistry and biochemistry programs helped each other to succeed. There was never a feeling of ‘men are better at this’. We took on the battle together.

MARCEK:

The students in our class knew each other’s names, we studied together outside of class, we spent four hours a week together in lab, and that really bonded us.

ROE:

The other women in my major were always a really supportive group. The guys were, too, but I remember spending more time and collaborating more often with fellow Bennies.

BOUSU:

We supported each other through late-night study sessions, as lab partners and as emotional support when classes and life were stressful.

STADING:

After graduate school at the U, I feel really familiar with the pros and cons of pursuing a technical degree at a PUI (primarily undergraduate institution) versus a larger university. There are so many rich research experiences available at large universities. But students need to be really proactive in seeking those out and seeking out a community for themselves. I think I would have gotten lost had I jumped into a large university as an undergraduate. It was great for graduate school, but I did a lot better at a PUI. My classes were small, so we were the focus. I was close with my peers and we moved through our coursework as this cohesive little cohort. I needed that sense of community.

CAMPBELL:

I think the value of a smaller institution is the individualized mentorship that the faculty can provide. I always felt welcomed and that I had a place in the classroom and in the lab.

INGALSBE:

I often feel a great deal of the success I had was the small class sizes. My professors knew me. They knew our names and they remembered where we struggled and where we excelled.

MARCEK:

One of the best things about the CSB/SJU faculty was their open-door policy. I probably was one of the annoying students who took too much advantage of it, but I remember sitting in almost all of my professors’ offices to ask questions.

SUMMER UNDERGRAD RESEARCH

The undergraduate research opportunities at Saint Ben’s and Saint John’s are designed to promote collaborative studentfaculty scholarship in all disciplines. Every one of these eight took that opportunity to grab hold of a summer job that would keep paying into their future.

INGALSBE:

It was a great learning experience for me, learning that failure yields results, how to adapt to the situation at hand and what working in a lab could be like. Dr. J. (Professor Emeritus Henry Jakubowski) was an amazing mentor to have throughout my education at CSB.

MARCEK:

My research project was fully intertwined with Amy’s. They were supervised by Dr. Kate Graham and Dr. T. Nicholas Jones. To have two students and two mentors together, it was like we were a real research team.

STADING:

We learned a ton. How to replicate and modify lab procedures from literature, how to collect and analyze data, and how to communicate our results with an audience. While the lab experiences were great, what I most enjoyed was just living on campus during the summer. There is such a small group of students there in the summer that you really get to know each other well. I definitely encourage undergrads, especially those seeking summer opportunities, to consider summer research.

CAMPBELL:

I did organic chemistry research with Dr. Brian Johnson and it was instrumental in preparing me for an external research experience at the University of Iowa and for my future Ph.D. path.

BOUSU:

Undergraduate research was a great experience in seeing a glimpse of what graduate school would be like. I worked on a project that pushed me academically and I learned a lot about critical thinking, independent work and troubleshooting. Research is so much more than just the project you’re working on. It teaches you how to think and brainstorm in a scientific manner and it takes the classroom learning to a new level.

BUCHERT:

It was really fun being part of a small group of scienceminded students spending our entire days in the lab. It was serendipitous – for me and my resume – that I inherited a food-testing research project and then found my career home in a food company!

ROE:

I did undergrad research for two summers, and that experience definitely helped build my resume and my confidence. I got to try a lot of different things. I felt like I was making a small but significant contribution to scientific research, and that was empowering.

HYLDEN:

My summer doing research with Dr. Jones at CSB resulted in my first-and-only first-author publication! It was a great experience, working one-on-one with a professor and getting a glimpse at the process of contributing to the scientific literature.

SO WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A WOMAN IN STEM FROM A WOMEN’S COLLEGE?

It took their hard work and a supportive environment. But, over 10 years later, what’s the result of that effort?

CAMPBELL:

I feel a sense of pride in my role as a woman in STEM and a deep sense of responsibility in the work I do to support undergraduate women in STEM and health care fields in their own research experiences. I don’t take the opportunities I have been given lightly, and hope that my work will help create similar opportunities for other young women in STEM.

ROE:

Women are overrepresented in teaching – at least at the K-12 level – but underrepresented in science, so I’m at a weird intersection point. I guess, to me, being a woman in STEM means being intelligent and knowledgeable about science content and, maybe more importantly, science practices. It means being someone who actually uses science to make decisions within my professional and personal spheres. As someone who’s also an educator, it means actively encouraging others’ interest in science, regardless of gender.

HYLDEN:

I’ve been lucky to have many female role models in STEM: my mom, my sisters and scientists I’ve worked with along the way. It has never felt unusual to me for a woman to pursue one of these disciplines. To me, being a woman in STEM simply means being an individual who is following their interests.

INGALSBE:

The people I work with on a daily basis, both men and women alike, are intelligent and appreciate each others’ contributions to our mission of public health. Working for the federal government means part of our mission is diversity and inclusion. And part of that is elevating and supporting women in their careers.

MARCEK:

I think being a woman in STEM is important, but at the same time I think it is more important to have a diversity of ideas and people in science. Science moves forward when new people join and bring in their experiences and thoughts on what needs to be researched further. For me, that diversity comes from gender, but also from life experiences, socioeconomic background, race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, and so much more.

BUCHERT:

I have two young daughters, so it’s important to me that they realize there are no limitations on what they can study or what careers they can pursue. And I have come to realize that my identity, including as a woman, affects the way I show up at work, and my team benefits from that. Ultimately there are no teams or projects in any field that can’t benefit from female contributions. It’s to everyone’s advantage when women have a seat at the table.

BOUSU:

Saint Ben’s gave me a solid foundation to not only work in a STEM field, but to be an overall good employee and teammate. What I love about a liberal arts school like CSB/SJU is that you not only learn the curriculum, but you also learn how to articulate and communicate, how to work in a team, how to support others, and how to critically think.