International Women and Girls in Science Day 2021: ‘ORT helped me decide who I was’

11.02.21

At ORT we endeavor to provide the skills young people need today in order to succeed tomorrow.

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education provides a foundation for all students to develop skills in critical thinking and problem-solving.

The STEM education every ORT student receives gives them a real advantage in the global employment market. It provides them with the knowledge and skill set they need to thrive in the science and technology-based society of today, tomorrow and the future.

Zoe Cherep demonstrates that ORT spirit in abundance. On International Women and Girls in Science Day, the Kiev ORT Educational Complex #141 graduate tells her story and explains the impact an ORT education had on her career choice:

I’ve always loved nature in general and the subject of Biology in particular, but it was ORT that helped me decide who I really was.

Thanks to the huge number of opportunities for development, experiments and the many science projects our school provided, I realized I wanted to develop in this direction.

I am very grateful to my teachers for providing extracurricular activities and involving me in STEM projects. They taught me how to develop in the direction of natural sciences and I know this development will help me in the future.

Now I study at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland, at the Faculty of Biotechnology. I chose this specialty because I have been interested in nature since I was a child. But the main role in my choice was thanks to studying at an ORT school.

A month ago, I received a research grant. Now I combine the implementation of my project with training. My research project is to study the effect of asparagine (amino acid) on the amount of accumulated lipids, carbohydrates and proteins, the rate of autophagy (the process of cleaning in the cell) in plant cells.

In my research work I use isolated embryonic axes of yellow lupine (Lupinus luteus L.) and variable one (Lupinus mutabilis sweet L.). In my opinion, a better understanding of the catalytic processes of the cell will help us to replicate and implement these mechanisms in everyday life and industry or to use plant mutants with improved qualities in medicine.

I believe that using natural resources we can help the world and change it for the better; biotechnologists are doing this right now, by creating vaccines against coronavirus.