Page 10 - YLC Newsletter

6. ASM International Student Chapters

In this edition, we interviewed presidents of ASM International Student Chapters of Brazil, El Salvador
and Pakistan and asked them about experiences they have acquired and challenges they have faced
after getting involved with ASM and the ISC program.

1. What were the activities promoted by your group since your ISC started? To whom were they
designed: academic audience or the community?

Maria Letícia Bonatelli (President of ISC USP, Brazil): the ISC USP (Universidade de São Paulo)-Branch promoted
different events from 2014 to the present date, several of them inspired in workshops from ASM. Our chapter
also created the blog Informative Science (Ciência Informativa, in Portuguese; https://cienciainformativa.
com.br/en_US/) that produces weekly content about science communication. Our chapter focused mainly in
activities of science communication to the general public, as events on parks and workshops that aimed at young
scientist’s capacitation to promote science divulgation.

Héctor Mauricio Araujo Murcia (President of ISC El Salvador): ASM MicroES Student Chapter began in September
2018, during this period we have managed to make a total of three activities focusing on medical students in
order to see their interest and development in the microbiological sciences. We also have scheduled other
activities for the period of January to June. The activities we carried out in the period from September to
December were: Microbe Sketching Competition - this activity was carried out in association with ASM ISC at
UVAS Ravi Campus (Pakistan), where both countries held the competition to see how the students were
developing in other areas, always focusing on microbiology - we received a diversity of drawings, in which had 3
winners from El Salvador and 6 from Pakistan; Introduction to Clinical Microbiology Workshop - the objective of
this activity was to show students the diseases caused by bacteria, likewise, the way in which bacterial cultures
are carried out, from how an agar is made, following the culture, ending with Gram staining for the differentiation
of bacteria; Workshop on laboratory types, levels and biosecurity measures - this activity was carried out followed
by the introduction to clinical microbiology workshop, the objective was to show students the care they should
have at the time of cultivation, as well as hygiene measures what they must have; the laboratory types and
classification by levels were also explained.

Abdul Maalik (President of ISC Pakistan): Our group members promoted a number of activities under the banner
of ASM including both academic audience and community. For an academic audience, we organized a number of
activities including: 1- One day Hands on Training on Laboratory Biosafety and biosecurity; 2- ASM Microbe
sketching competition; 3- ASM membership drive; 4- ASM digest; 5- We select two coordinators from each class
(one male, one female); 6- Virtual workshop with students of José Matías Delgado University El Salvador. For the
community, we organized “Public awareness campaign regarding Congo virus”.

2. In your opinion, what were the main benefits and experiences acquired by you and the ISC
members through these events? What was the feedback regarding the impact and relevance of these
activities?

Maria Letícia Bonatelli (President of ISC USP, Brazil): for our chapter, we learned a lot making these events,
learning how to organize them. Usually the feedbacks of our events are good, specially events about Science
Communication, because undergrad and graduate students usually don't have this content in their classes.

Board members contacts:
ISC USP, Brazil: Maria Letícia Bonatelli, president, mlbonatelli@gmail.com

ISC Pakistan: Mr. Abdul Maalik (M.Phil- Scholar), president, abdulgawan54@gmail.com
Miss Tooba Latif (M.Phil- Scholar), vice-president, Tooba7latif@gmail.com

ISC El Salvador: Héctor Mauricio Araujo Murcia, presidente, maaraujom7@gmail.com
Roberto Hernan García Abarca, vice-presidente, robgar54197@gmail.com