Giving Our Young Women a Platform to Advocate for Their STEM Peers

I’ve written many times about how Abbott’s scientists and engineers – and the life-changing health technologies they create – often leave me in awe. 

I feel the same way about our high school interns. They come from all over the U.S., from diverse schools and backgrounds, and they spend the summers working with us as we prepare them to be successful in STEM in college and beyond.

This summer a group of these interns – nine impressive and determined young women – put pen to paper after we asked them to share their stories. They wrote letters to business leaders, asking them to give other female students the same opportunities they’ve had with Abbott.

Reading the letters, I felt not only these interns’ frustrations at the lack of STEM opportunities for women, but also their confidence after succeeding – and their real pleas for their peers to get the same chances they did.  

We were so impressed that we published the letters as full-page ads in major daily U.S. newspapers this morning. They’re also available at www.stem.abbott, where you also can download our updated STEM internship blueprint. We’re encouraging other companies to use it to create similar programs, including with college credit recommendations like the one ours just received.

With that, I’ve said enough. I’ll let one of our interns, 18-year-old Anushka Agashe from Illinois, take it from here.