Open Labs wins Ivy Award

Yale President Peter Salovey and New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker. (Photo by Dan Renzetti)
April 6, 2023

Yale and New Haven leaders yesterday bestowed Seton Elm-Ivy Awards on eight people and organizations strengthening the ties between the university and city.

A Yale faculty member who recently created a job training program that makes biotech jobs accessible to non-college educated residents in New Haven and a community organization that offers a summer enrichment program to local schoolchildren were among the eight recipients of the 2023 Seton Elm-Ivy Awards.

The awards, which are given annually, honor outstanding efforts by individuals, organizations, or programs that enhance the lives of Elm City residents and nourish the partnership between Yale and its host city. Elm Awards honor individuals from the broader New Haven community, while the Ivy Awards are given to Yale staff members, faculty, or students.

This year’s recipients were honored during a ceremony April 4 at the Yale Schwarzman Center. Awards were presented by Yale President Peter Salovey and New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker.

Ivy Awards went to Craig Crews, the John C. Malone Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology and creator of the job training program BioLaunch; Public Humanities at Yale, which has introduced a series of projects that connect the Yale community with New Haven residents; Heather Dawn Reynolds, a nurse-midwife and lecturer at Yale School of Nursing who for decades has provided care and addressed health inequities in the New Haven community; Josephine Steuer Ingall ’24, a Yale College student who has helped address food insecurity in the city (who received the Undergraduate Ivy Award); and Open Labs, a graduate student organization that works with local students and families to inspire an interest in science (recipient of the Graduate and Professional Student Ivy Award).

The Seton Elm-Ivy Awards were established in 1979 through the inspiration and support of Fenmore Seton ’38 and Phyllis Seton, who established an endowment at the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven to support the awards ceremony. The first Elm and Ivy Awardees were named in 1980.

“As we mark this 41st celebration of the Seton Elm-Ivy Awards, we celebrate organizations and individuals who work tirelessly to contribute to a strong New Haven by strengthening the relationship with Yale and New Haven,” said Lauren Zucker, associate vice president for New Haven Affairs and University Properties.

“This year’s recipients, through their passion and leadership, help build a healthier and safer community, foster inclusive economic development and local job creation, and inspire and educate our youth. As a result, today, New Haven and Yale stand out for the size, duration, and success of that partnership, including the most supportive fiscal relationship, and a longstanding community investment program by Yale. Our partnership is well-established, long-rooted, and growing every day — yielding real results for New Haven residents.”

Open Labs, Graduate and Professional Student Ivy Award

“The graduate student leaders of Yale Open Labs have made it their mission to inspire the next generation of scientists, bringing local students and families together in a variety of ways to showcase the frontiers of science at Yale. Since 2014, Open Labs has hosted Science Cafes each semester, where New Haven students engage in fun, interactive science demonstrations and listen to a set of concise and highly engaging science talks. Parents, grandparents, sisters, and brothers all take part in conversations with Yale scientists following the talks — discussing astronomy over a cup of hot cocoa or examining the importance of the microbiome while they snack on cookies. The Open Labs crew works tirelessly to ensure that the Science Cafe events are comfortable and engaging, providing step-by-step support to Yale graduate student volunteers as they develop their content and hone their science communication skills.

“Open Labs expanded in 2017 to include even more unique ways of giving the gift of science to local students. They co-founded Yale Science Haven, collaborating with local community organizations to bring their science demonstrations on the road to New Haven churches, fairs, parks, and summer events. They also began hosting the annual Flipped Science Fair, which literally flips the traditional science fair on its head by inviting New Haven middle school students to learn about cutting-edge science research at Yale by evaluating Yale graduate student science fair projects.

“During the pandemic, instead of curtailing interacting with New Haven families, Josie and Lam’s team made a bold move — to host Exploring Science weekly. From April 2020 to May 2021, Open Labs hosted 49 Exploring Science sessions on Zoom, drawing anywhere from 80 to 160 local students each week.

“Each year, Open Labs serves thousands of local New Haven students, and Yale graduate student leaders like Josie [Jayworth] and Lam [Vo] have made this happen. For continuously inspiring and engaging with local youth to encourage science exploration, Mayor Justin Elicker and President Peter Salovey present Open Labs with the Graduate and Professional Student Ivy Award.”

Some physics graduate students who are involved with Open Labs: Ben Siegel and Mengwen Shi on the Demo committee and  Caitlin Gish on the Finance Committee.

Comment from Caitlin Gish, “It is so exciting to see the work of OpenLabs be recognized! Every member of our team brings something unique to the table and allows us to do the most for our community. Participating in OpenLabs has been one of the most rewarding experiences in my time at Yale. Our mission is to inspire the next generation of scientists but every time I get to work children at our events I often feel like I am the one who has been inspired. We all care so much about these students and about this city and it is such an honor to receive an award specifically recognizing this connection.

There are so many people who have gotten us where we are and I would be remiss to not mention the 2022 director Josie Jayworth and current director Lam Vo. But the entire leadership team, past and present, the many volunteers that give their time to make our events a reality, our partnership with Yale Pathways to Science, and all of our other community partners are invaluable components in what make it possible for us to do what we do.”

Comment from Mengwen Shi, “I was very excited when I heard OpenLabs won the award! I was only a volunteer last year for the many outreach events organized by OpenLabs. However, the experience encouraged me to get more involved so I became the Demo chair this year. I am hoping to inspire more kids to take interest in science through our demos and it means a lot for us to get recognized by the Lvy Awards. It was absolutely amazing to work with organizations like the Yale Pathways to Science and Synapse to introduce science to the general public in a fun and interactive way through science demonstrations. Also with the help from the physics demonstration team this year we were able to bring more variety of demonstrations than what we had previously to share our love for science with local kids and families.”

This article was taken from the Yale News article of April 4, 2023 by Susan Gonzalez. Please click below for the full article.

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