The Institute Guinovarda in Piera invited researchers Lara Maestripieri (Principal Investigator) and Victoria de Castro (PhD student) from the NEXT-UP project at IGOP to participate in Científiques, an initiative promoted by the Fundació Catalana per a la Recerca i la Innovació (FCRI), coordinated by the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), and developed in collaboration with the Departament d’Educació de la Generalitat de Catalunya. The project aims to highlight and make visible the work of women in science, bringing researchers closer to secondary school students across Catalonia.
As part of this initiative, Lara and Victoria share their academic journeys and reflect on how their personal experiences led them to become social scientists. The encounter was especially meaningful for students from vulnerable backgrounds, as it demonstrated that a career in academia is not only possible but attainable. It also created a space where students could see their own experiences and aspirations reflected in the researchers’ stories.
Lara spoke about growing up in a rural area near Milan, describing a landscape and range of opportunities similar to those familiar to many students in Piera. Victoria, meanwhile, shared her experience as a migrant navigating both an educational system and everyday life in a new country. Her story resonated deeply with many students, who felt encouraged to imagine themselves pursuing similar academic paths.
The session was lively and highly participatory. Students actively engaged in the discussion, posing thoughtful questions such as: What does a sociologist do? And can you name examples of women in science? These exchanges helped broaden their understanding of what it means to be a social scientist.
By the end of the day, students had discovered that a scientist is not only someone in a white lab coat conducting laboratory experiments, but also someone who studies people, their relationships with institutions, social structures, and inequalities, and who works to understand and address some of the most pressing challenges of our time.
