Informal VU SciComm group just started!
Grad students Cole Harris and Stephanie Castillo, postdoc Allison Whitten, and alumna/staff member Lorena Infante Lara have started an informal group on campus called VU Scicomm. The group is meant to be a community for all scientists on campus (any discipline) who are interested in some form of science communication or other, including but not limited to science writing, medical writing, science journalism, institutional writing, technical writing, podcasting, etc.
The group will ask members to share resources, tips, ideas, or to even ask for help with writing, editing, and more. The goal is to have informal happy hours every month or so just so the group can get together and chat. Eventually, the hope is to bring in speakers or host video chats with people from across the scicomm world if members feel like it would be beneficial to them.
For now, the group has limited the access to graduate students and beyond (i.e., no undergrads) because members are most familiar with the job prospects, struggles, and needs of Ph.D.-trained scientists.
Except for the future happy hours (TBD), VU SciComm will be an all-digital group at first. If you’re interested in participating, make sure you join the Slack group here (note that you’ll need an @vanderbilt.edu or an @vumc.org email address to join):
https://join.slack.com/t/vuscicomm/signup
Send thoughts or questions to the Slack group, and make sure to invite anyone else who you think would be interested in joining us!