Youth STEM Matters: A global, youth-led scientific journal
Anne-Rosa Bilal, Managing Editor (Life Sciences) and Co-Founder of Youth STEM Matters, is this week’s guest blogger.
There are countless challenges that we are facing currently: disparities in health, education, opportunities. We are also in crisis – a climate crisis, a worldwide pandemic, and widespread mental health stigma. These are all problems that world leaders have tried to tackle with varying degrees of success and young people are especially impacted.
However, we believe that the same young people can play a critical role in combatting these problems – and we believe that we can do it through research & collaboration in science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM). We believe that young people can innovate solutions and approaches that could change the world for the better. We believe that young people working together on a global scale can sow the seeds of success for a more sustainable future – for all.
Youth STEM Matters is a global, youth-led scientific journal aiming to help shout out loud the voices of young people around the world – creating an inclusive and accessible platform for them to share their scientific research, ideas, and innovations. As the flagship project of Youth STEM 2030, we’re wholeheartedly aiming to play as significant of a role possible to work towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): to make the world a better place. We peer-review STEM articles that young people around the world have written and work closely with them to ensure that their work is challenged to the best standard it can be.
Youth bring original and novel solutions to tackle important challenges that we are facing now. Whether that is through a research article exploring the anti-cancerous properties of coral and the potential for future treatments, or a science communication article about unmanned aerial vehicles and their applications in real life, young people are demonstrating the extent to which we can take steps to bridge the gap between problems and solutions.
By focusing on the 17 UN SDGs, we aim to increase awareness on a global scale as to the importance of working together, internationally, to solve issues that people are currently facing – which in itself is the 17th goal: Partnerships! We are partnering with as many young people in the world, to try to amplify their voices and their research.
Our team consists entirely of young people that passionately believe in what we are doing. All resources, training plans, organisational strategies and management are all done by young people because we believe that young people working together to help other young people share ideas and innovation is the way to ensure that the future is more sustainable. We are 52 volunteers across 21 countries, and over 2,000 volunteer hours (and counting!) all working together for one mission.
We want to reach as many young people as possible. We do not believe in boundaries, for by working together, we can, and we will make the world a better place – hand in hand. Help us spread the word, and join our mission: https://www.youthstem2030.org/youth-stem-matters
Anne-Rosa is a 17-year-old A-level student based in London, England, who is passionate about creating sustainable opportunities for young people through research and innovation. Apart from volunteering, she enjoys reading, and researching about neuroimmunology. However, most importantly, her aim is to help as many people around the world as possible, in whatever way possible.