L’Oréal Supports the Regeneration of Women in Science

February 2017, the kick-off of L’Oréal-KNIU Science Projects 2017 program.

L’Oréal shows its commitment to developing science and empowering women through a range of L’Oréal-KNIU Science Projects 2017 program. With the theme called “The Art of Science: Making Life More Beautiful,” this program aims to socialize the importance of science and breaks the stigma that science is boring. It initiates three science programs for three different levels of education: L’Oréal Girls in Science (LGIS) for high school students, L’Oréal Sorority in Science (LSIS) for university students, and For Women in Science (FWIS) for professional researchers.

“The Art of Science” as the chosen theme this year pictures how scientists are like artists who create artworks. “It is our duty to appreciate scientists’ findings as masterpieces that we should be proud of; masterpieces that start from ideas and then go through a long process with persistence, precision, and full commitment to achieve perfection. L’Oréal believes that science has the ability to change lives to become more advanced, better, and more beautiful,” said Melanie Masriel, Head of Communications L’Oréal Indonesia.

On the socialization day (23/2), L’Oréal presented the winners and scholarship grantees from the previous programs to talk about their experiences with science, hoping that it will be an inspiration and motivation for other women to start a career in science. This was done in a very interactive way. The first presentation was delivered by three students of SMAK 3 BPK Penabur as the winners of LGIS 2016. These girls are Marshella Wijaya, Amanda Kosim, and Clessya Olivia. Through their presentation, they tried to break the stigma that science is boring and all nerdy. They emphasized how science can be fun and shouldn’t be taken as difficult. In fact, Clessya is actually a social science student. So she showed how science isn’t limited only to the natural science kids. One of the most important parts of their presentation was when they said, “Every small action matters…So if there are 7 billion people including us the women, we can change the world.” Not only that this message is important, the fact that it was said by three high school students makes it even more powerful.

The second presentation was given by LSIS 2016 awardee Mega Watty. Mega is a pharmacy undergraduate student who has had an excellent career in science at a young age. She contributed as a writer in one of the most prestigious international academic journal in science, which is a rare achievement for a bachelor student. Also, she’s currently pioneering drug discovery for lung cancer.

The third presenter was Fitri Koerunnisa, Ph.D as one of the FWIS fellows. Fitri emphasized how important the presence of a role model is in creating more scientists. She said that perhaps the lack of role model causes the emergence of a perception which says that science is boring. Since Fitri received her fellowship from L’Oréal, she has been receiving many more awards, including the offer to contribute to the prestigious Nano project from the European Commission. The project itself involves scientists from 7 countries which are mostly Western countries. The fact that there’s Indonesia among developed countries gives Fitri a proud feeling of being Indonesian.

From the three presenters, Ovidia Nomia as the Corporate Communications Manager of L’Oréal concluded that all great women in science have one thing in common: they have a strong support system. This support system can be in a form of family, friends, or work environment. Here, L’Oréal plays a role as a support system that aims to increase the regeneration of women in science through L’Oréal Science Project programs.

For more information about L’Oréal Science Project 2017, visit www.lorealscience.co.id

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