By Angela Bongiovanni
For MediaNews Group
I am completing a Ph.D. in neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania. In high school, I struggled to get B’s and C’s in my science classes.
My path into science was nontraditional. I started in psychology at Temple University but quickly became fascinated by my electives in neuroscience. When I decided to double major in neuroscience, my adviser informed me I would have to take biology, physics and chemistry classes. Despite flashbacks of the C’s on my high school report card, I made my double major official.
The semesters that followed were rocky. I was behind my peers in a lot of aspects. Sometimes it felt as if I was working twice as hard for less results. Often professors would skip over “basic” concepts that they assumed students knew. To my surprise, my classmates did often understand these concepts that were novel to me. When I asked them about it, the answer was always the same: “I learned this in high school,” followed by a facial expression that implied “…didn’t you?”
I began questioning the quality of my public-school education for the first time.
I grew up in a small town in Berks County. I thought my education was normal growing up, but I had no point of reference. Looking back, I went to a school that was under-resourced, understaffed and had curriculum with some glaring blind spots, especially in the sciences.
This dynamic is not isolated to my hometown. It represents a larger, more disturbing trend nationwide. Children from rural communities have less access to quality scientific education and therefore less opportunity in lucrative STEM (science, technology, engineering, and medicine) fields upon adulthood.
This reality is compounded by an even more concerning trend: the United States is losing its edge in global technological leadership. Since World War II, our nation’s research enterprise has been dubbed the envy of the world, leading innovation in nearly all domains of science and technology. This leadership in science and tech plays a vital role in supporting America’s strategic position of global influence and military posture.
This is not by coincidence. Throughout world history, the nation leading in technological innovation is almost always the seat of world power and military might. However, the ability of any given nation to be at the apex of innovation is not indefinite. Historians and political scientists recognize Cardwell’s Law, which states that “no nation has been very creative for more than a historically short period.”
This is a chilling axiom for the United States. Our nation leads global science on a system of democratic values including openness, fair competition and collaboration. The positive impact of U.S. research is immeasurable and worldwide. Slowing down our scientific engine would be devastating not only for the homeland but for the entire world.
Yet political decisions are being made to defund U.S. scientific research and education. This will be to the detriment of American leadership on the world stage and threaten our way of life. Such policies will be even more detrimental to the upcoming generation being robbed of the scientific education they will need to compete in the global job market of the future.
Growing our STEM workforce is more important than ever to ensure national security. Unfortunately, there is no quick fix for the low-quality education received by millions of high-potential students in under-resourced towns, known to scientists as the “missing millions”. The students who will be entry-level STEM workers in the 2040s are entering elementary school today and will be starting their education before any curriculum reforms can be made.
I have a message for my fellow students from small towns:
If you feel called to science, even just a little bit, go for it. Even if your science grades are low, just go for it. I got a C in high school biology, but when I retook it in college, I was top of my class. Maybe it was because my college professors had more resources. Maybe I was just more determined. Or maybe my 14-year-old brain just wasn’t ready to understand the difference between meiosis and mitosis in the way that my 22-year-old brain could.
Once you are a little bit older the concepts that feel impossible now will become clearer. You may just need another year or two of brain development- and that’s OK. Everyone develops at a different pace. I promise that at some point you will start to understand science, and it will be especially rewarding knowing you came from a small town and beat the odds.
You are not just a small-town kid. With the right resources, there is a prolific scientist inside you just waiting to flourish. I am proof that it is possible. I did not grow up receiving top-notch science education. But I had something more important — I had me.
The turquoise post-it note on the wall by my lab bench at Penn reads “Bet on yourself.” If you are a small-town kid reading this, make a bet on yourself right now to achieve scientific greatness. I know you can do it. And protect your future by fighting back against the defunding of the U.S. scientific enterprise.
I am betting on small-town kids across the country to show out their potential in STEM and support the nation in this pivotal time. You are smarter than you know and believe it or not, your country needs you.
Angela Bongiovanni, a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, grew up in Birdsboro and resides in Philadelphia.
