Inaugural Address from the President

Whenever we carry out one of our presentations, I begin with the story of my mother and my late grandmother. My mother’s story is one of inspiration: an example that no matter who tells you that you can’t become a scientist, you are more than capable of becoming one. And I tell my late grandmother’s story as one of perseverance. But there is another story about my grandmother that also explains our namesake.

My grandmother—Josepha Kaay Lumbao—asked me once if I could ever cure the cancer, she’d fought back four times. I had to be honest and tell her that the research I did probably wouldn’t cure her cancer. She was also never afforded the opportunity to fulfill her dream of caring for the sick and the elderly as a nurse. Hence, we take on her name as a way to fulfill what she couldn’t. Although she may never have been able to care for others the way she wished because of discrimination, through her memory she’ll be able to fulfill that one dream and, perhaps, one day inspire the next scientist who will cure cancer.

8 months ago, I approached the DMRSEF directors with an idea to do some outreach for the fair. I expected to reach 50 maybe 100 students if we were lucky. In that time, we’ve managed to reach out to over 1,000 students across nearly 10 schools and a library. Not only that, but, of the 204 students we’ve polled, 79 of them have expressed an interest in competing in the fair most of whom had never heard of the fair before we told them about it—an over 50% increase over this year’s fair’s 140 participants. This is a testament to our capabilities and our strive.

We have big goals in the pipeline. In addition to continuing our outreach and recruiting

students to the fair, we will also work on an adopt-a-school/classroom program in the hopes of making an impact on school curriculums. We will also begin reaching out to more of the community—adults and students alike—to raise awareness of the fair and influence the public’s perception of science and scientists.

I am confident in J-KOA’s ability to accomplish all of this, and I’m excited to see where we’ll go.

From the Desk of Koya Lumbao-Conradson, President