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Oncofertility Saturday Academy

Each Saturday in February, two groups of girls from the Young Women's Leadership Charter School in Chicago's near south side met with faculty in the Oncofertility Consortium, Teresa Woodruff's national research program designed to explore the reproductive future of cancer patients facing the possibility of fertility threatening treatment.

Photo: Andrew Campbell

The students who gathered for hands-on learning about the female reproductive system are juniors and seniors at the YWLCS, a Chicago public school that draws in young women from across the city who are interested in technology, math, and science. Juniors met in Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences on the Evanston campus; seniors, who attended this program last year, gathered at Feinberg School of Medicine on the Chicago campus. The YWLCS is the only all-girls public school in the city.

Photo: Andrew Campbell

Highlights of the program included the creation of alginate beads for the three-dimensional study of oocytes, the observation of cancer surgery, a labor and delivery video, simulation of in vitro fertilization and working with a surgery robot.

Students graduated in a ceremony at Prentice Women's Hospital on March 5. This program is sponsored by Northwestern University's Center for Reproductive Science, the Oncofertility Consortium, YWLCS, and the Office for STEM Education Partnerships.