Athlone student, Rebeccca Norris, was among the students from University of Galway to receive scholarships as part of Johnson & Johnson’s Women in STEM2D (WiSTEM2D ) Undergraduate Award Programme, recognising outstanding female students in STEM2D disciplines: Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, Manufacturing and Design.
Each recipient will receive a student award, industry mentoring and leadership training, along with the opportunity to attend careers workshops, visit Johnson & Johnson sites and participate in WiSTEM2D events designed to support them with pursuing future STEM careers. This is the second year that the institution has been involved with the programme, which has been running in Ireland since 2016.
The Johnson & Johnson WiSTEM2D programme fuels the development of the female STEM2D talent pipeline by awarding and sponsoring girls and women at critical points in their educational experience and their careers, in STEM disciplines. The Undergraduate programme was first introduced at University of Limerick in 2016. Since then, it has expanded to include University College Cork in 2018, and University of Galway in 2021, and Munster Technological University in 2022, supporting more than 400 female students over the last six years.
“We are delighted to strengthen our partnerships with industry and especially with Johnson & Johnson through initiatives such as the WiSTEM2D programme. We can achieve more together as the Irish term Meitheal suggests - describing how neighbours would come together to achieve a mutually better harvest. As access to tertiary education expands, we recognise that support for underrepresented students while they are part of our community is critical. Industry support for our underrepresented students in STEM can act as a catalyst to level the playing field, which is increasingly important against the backdrop of growing diversity in Ireland and the need to recognise and design for intersectionality in education.”
“The industry mentorship, provided as part of the programme, is a significant boon to our female student scientists, mathematicians and engineers and it is an essential ingredient, which energises them to address the world’s most pressing challenges, as framed by the UN Sustainable Development Goals and to innovate for our society, our people and our planet. We care about our students and their ambitions and we are guided by our values of openness, excellence, sustainability and respect in our role in shaping our students as the leaders of the future,” University of Galway President, Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, said.
The awards ceremony was held in Áras Na Mac Léinn, University of Galway, and was also attended by Anna Rafferty, Director of Strategy, Johnson & Johnson Campus Ireland; AnnaLisa Smullin, Senior R&D Engineer and WiSTEM2D Lead at CERENOVUS; and Cara Feely, Senior Regulatory Affairs Specialist at CERENOVUS. Recipients of the Johnson & Johnson WiSTEM2D Award scholarship were also presented with bespoke framed glass artwork created by Fermoy-based artist, Suzanne O’Sullivan.
