As young sisters growing up in Las Vegas, we didn’t have the language to define our fascination with science. For Angel, it was an early obsession with questions about health and fairness: Why do some people get sick and others don’t? Why do some communities struggle more than others? Why isn’t there always a solution?
For Lisa, it was Marvel’s comic-book character Iron Man on our computer screen, planting the seed of invention and helping others.
At that point, our interests were drastically removed from a reality where much of our day-to-day life was in a state of pandemic flux. In 2021, when Lisa was 13 and Angel was 17, shifting dynamics in our family created uncertainty and instability in our lives. Through it all, our love of science became an anchor.
Not only did science embody our passions and dreams, it became one of the few spaces where effort, curiosity and persistence actually led somewhere. Later on, immersive STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) experiences opened doors for us, and we want to help open those same doors for others. That’s why we wish more students had the opportunity to do “real science” early, the way that we did by attending the nation’s oldest summer STEM program.
Angel attended virtually during the pandemic, studying biochemistry. Lisa studied biochemistry in person at Purdue University. Being part of these programs gave both of us real access to serious research for the first time, working with U.S. and international students from all over the world.
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We weren’t just following instructions. We were designing experiments and troubleshooting with our peers. When we did research, it didn’t just teach us lab skills. It taught us that our background and circumstances don’t disqualify us from doing our own world-class research. Not enough people realize that STEM is more than just learning facts. It’s much broader. Working in STEM relies on communication, cooperative learning and other dynamic skills.
The confidence Angel got from researching traumatic brain injury and cardiovascular health boosted her application to Princeton, from which she graduated in May with a degree in molecular biology.
STEM gave Lisa the confidence to create her own advocacy and awareness organizations, including one focused on empowering young Nigerian women through mentorship and education and another that aims to teach teens about diabetes prevention and management.
Real science, we both learned, almost never works perfectly the first time. Most of the time, when things go wrong, what helps is taking a step back and realizing the problem isn’t with your equations or your math, but with your assumptions.
Being stuck on a problem isn’t a sign of failing. It’s a sign that you’re actually doing real research. STEM teaches more than just biology or chemistry or engineering; it teaches students how to work with people and how to function in the real world.
When people talk about the need for “soft skills” in addition to technical expertise, they mean habits we both developed as high school students, thanks to the opportunity to conduct actual research. Working with peers to do hands-on science for its own sake, instead of for just a grade or a competition, made us better students, better colleagues and better people.
Meaningful change can happen before college when students have the chance to really explore STEM outside of a textbook. It spurs understanding, innovation and humanity.
The momentum that started from our initial experiences with “real science” is now propelling us toward change and advocacy. Our curiosity turned into the study of biology and chemistry because we realized that these are tools that allow you to intervene, not just observe.
We both have an interest in public health and medicine, because medicine is applied science. Every diagnosis, every medication, every lab result is rooted in biology, chemistry and data. If we’re treating a patient, we don’t just want to know what the guidelines say. We want to understand what’s happening at a molecular level and why a treatment works — or doesn’t. And that’s why we both have chosen to pursue a STEM education.
Lisa plans to study pre-med at Princeton next fall in the hopes of pursuing biomedical innovation. Postgraduation, Angel is planning to study for an advanced degree in public health and medicine at Yale. She recently founded and is now president of the Global Health Reform Initiative (GHRI), a U.S.-based nonprofit advancing health equity for underserved communities through global health research, policy and technology-enabled health care access.
Giving students the chance to tackle real-world problems, allowing them to fail and regroup, and prioritizing learning through access doesn’t only lead to results, but to better humans.
Angel Ndubisi has recently completed a bachelor’s of arts (AB) in molecular biology at Princeton University. She is the founder of Global Health Reform Initiative, a nonprofit public health organization. Lisa Ndubisi will attend Princeton University in fall 2026 to study pre-med.
Contact the opinion editor at opinion@hechingerreport.org.This story about Summer STEM was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s weekly newsletter.
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