Dear Students,
Welcome to Science and Quantitative Reasoning in the Yale College Dean’s Office. I am delighted that you have found your way to our website, and I hope you will discover many valuable resources here. Should you have any further questions or require additional information, please do not hesitate to reach out to us.
I believe that STEM education is more crucial than ever, and that it can open doors for many career options. Being science literate and educated in STEM will help you to be a lifelong critical thinker and help to grow your analytic abilities. In addition, a solid foundation in STEM empowers you to comprehend and engage with scientific concepts and make informed decisions. These abilities will serve you well no matter what career you pursue. Therefore, I encourage all Yale students to take advantage of the many opportunities you have in a vast variety of STEM disciplines. Whether or not you major in STEM, challenge yourself with STEM classes and step out of your comfort zone. As a Yale student, you have the privilege of enhancing your scientific literacy, an opportunity many across the nation and the world lack. Embrace this privilege and recognize the responsibility to not only learn but also to share your knowledge with others. Our role at Science and QR is not only to help you get the best STEM education possible but also to position you to use your knowledge for the greater good and to educate others. This can occur through formal teaching or simply by sharing your knowledge in a way that is accessible to everyone around you.
We hope you will consider majoring in STEM, and if you do, having an experiential learning experience will be a vital component of your STEM education. Therefore, I encourage you to engage in research early in your undergraduate journey. Our website offers numerous resources to help you connect with professors and research labs. We also conduct workshops each fall on finding a lab and writing a research proposal. The best way to get started in research is to spend a summer working full-time on a mentored research project in a lab or with a research group. If you are interested in conducting research at Yale, we offer competitive summer funding opportunities, and for those with prior research experience at Yale or elsewhere, we provide the Tetelman Fellowship for summer research abroad.
A critical component of the fellowship funding application is the research proposal. Crafting proposals not only deepens your understanding of your research project within the broader scientific context but also hones your ability to communicate the significance of your research to others. As STEM majors and scientists, we bear the responsibility to share our knowledge with non-scientists, ensuring that everyone becomes more scientifically literate regardless of their career or educational background. What is more crucial now than ever is for your generation of scientists to convey the importance of your research to both peers and the wider community. As Yale students, you are among the best and brightest of your generation, and it will be up to you to make the discoveries that improve our health, safety and security in the world. It will also be up to you to identify the most important research questions to ask, as well as the best ways to convey the value of scientific research to your communities and beyond.
We understand that some of you may feel underprepared or less prepared in STEM compared to your peers. Rest assured, regardless of your previous STEM experience, you can succeed in STEM here at Yale. We offer several programs tailored to support students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds or those with limited STEM education opportunities before arriving here at Yale. Please visit the STARS Program website if you are interested in learning more about these programs.
We are here to help you pursue STEM research, challenge you to reach new heights, and help you succeed in STEM. If you have an interest in STEM, please pursue it and let us know how we can help you persist and succeed in STEM.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Best,
Dean Belperron