Widening participation event for refugee and minorities families, co-hosted by Multi-Cultural Family Base, the University of Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt University and Edinburgh Napier University.

We are excited to be co-hosting a universities family day to encourage more young people from the migrant, refugee and minorities
communities into university education. The event will take place on Saturday 24^th June 2017 at the University of Edinburgh and will be centered around Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) activities. Young people, most of whom are currently accessing services at MCFB, will be visiting the Division of Infection & Pathway Medicine (DIPM) at the University of Edinburgh and will take part in a series of activities, including presentations, games, information/play desks and lab tours. Student and staff volunteers from all 3 universities will be present to share their experience and facilitate the day. This event is funded by RSE Young Academy of Scotland (YAS), with in-kind participation from the 3 universities.

The event is led by Dr Maïwenn Kersaudy-Kerhoas from the University of Heriot Watt, Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellow and Honorary Fellow at the DIPM, the University of Edinburgh.

“The Universities Family Visit Day event is a great opportunity for the Edinburgh scientific community to welcome the migrant, refugee, and minorities communities within our work environment and showcase the international research being carried out in our laboratories. In science and engineering we need inclusiveness as the diversity of thoughts is important to generate high quality research and tackle tomorrow's challenges. With this event we hope to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers from a variety of backgrounds.”

DR MAIWENN KERSAUDY-KERHOAS    

“This is a continuation of our role in breaking down barriers. We recognise that routes into higher education can be restricted for children from minority ethnic groups and we endeavour to be active in countering disadvantage.”

ANNE SPIERS, PRJOECT LEADER AT MCFB

The event follows on from a recent collaboration with Into University in October 2016 when we accompanied some of our young  service users to a full day workshop at Napier University. All participants took part in a graduation ceremony at the end of the day and our youngest member (8 years old) delivered her own speech about her ambition to become a doctor - very inspiring!