This weekend, the Oncofertility Consortium, along with the Institute for Women's Health Research, is hosting the fifth annual Oncofertility Saturday Academy (OSA) at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University.  OSA is an informal science education program designed to expose high school girls to the wonders of science and medicine through hands-on and experiential activities.  These high school girls come from the Young Women's Leadership Charter School, on the near south side of Chicago.  Through a rigorous application program, 16 juniors and 16 seniors are selected to participate in OSA.  Tomorrow, the juniors will participate in rotations in the Woodruff Lab, learning about cutting-edge fertility preservation techniques.  Additionally, the juniors will be paired with students in the new Physician Assistant Program at Northwestern University, who will lead a workshop on birth control and STD prevention.  The seniors will be paired with medical students for "Doctor for a Day."  Each student will learn how to administer a basic exam and will gain exposure to the medical field.  Both juniors and seniors will conclude the day by hearing the story of a cancer patient survivor's quest to preserve her fertility.

To learn more about this innovative high school program click HERE.  The term "oncofertility" was coined by Dr. Teresa K. Woodruff at Northwestern to describe the merging of two disciplines:   oncology and fertility preservation.  Many cancer treatments result in infertility and her research has focused on ways to preserve fertility in young women with cancer.

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Comments

Wow - what a cool opportunity. Great way to inspire more women to join the field.

I love the way you're inspiring young girls to reach for the stars and providing them with the opportunities to do so. Excellent job!

There has been a lot of interest in the Physician’s Assistant programs in our area. Definitely worth exploring and this is a great opportunity for high school girls.

It's these kinds of programs that will put us (America) back on top in terms of math and science, especially when they're geared towards women. Great article!

This is a nice story. Very inspiring for high school students to reach their goal in terms of "science" You give great opportunity to the young ones. AWESOME job!

There has been a lot of interest in the Physician's Assistant programs in our area. Definitely worth exploring and this is a great opportunity for high school girls.

As an educator it is wonderful to see young people learning early how important their contribution will be.

It's nice to see girls taking such an interest in science! We need to have a stronger female presence in some fields which currently are male dominated!

How nice to see that you are providing such a big chance to the leaders of future. everybody would like to be a "Doctor for a day" if possible.

I am very impressed with the increase of females in the sciences and math fields.

I think the beliefs that women have about what they can accomplish start early, and the sooner you can intervene and help to shape them, the better. I hope the days of girls being behind in science because of their image of science as a "boy field" are over.

I thank the many women scientists in this project. I really liked your post. I think women have a great chance to visit the Woodruff Lab, Congratulations to all girls who will know their way in their life Thanks