Faces of WISEST: Laura MacPherson

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Laura MacPherson

BSc, MSc

In grade 3 a boy told me that I couldn’t be good at math because I was a girl. Luckily, that flippant comment didn’t deter me from my continued interest in the sciences but it could have, under different circumstances. In grade 6, an observant teacher chose me to participate in the WISEST CHOICES conference. I still vividly remember being surrounded by girls from other schools and working together to complete hands-on tasks like building a bridge out of newspaper or trying to clean up a mock oil spill in a pie plate. Inspired, that year I also went on to win our school’s science fair and then the provincial science fair.

My interest in science, and more specifically zoology, continued throughout school and into postsecondary where I graduated with both a BSc and MSc from the University of Alberta. Today, I’m a fisheries biologist for Alberta Fish and Wildlife and I love what I do! I get to organize, analyze, model and interpret big messy datasets, lead various science initiatives and work with our regional biologists in the field collecting fisheries data. And you guessed it, I’m still good at math.

I can not overstate the importance of WISEST and its function to empower girls and women to pursue the sciences. Because of WISEST, girls know they’re smart enough, they’re good enough and they absolutely belong in the STEM field.