Interesting news from Japan: Tohoku University has decided to launch an outreach effort to encourage more girls to pursue science. Rather than relying on secondary school science classes to whip up enthusiam for science, the university is recruiting its own women graduate students in the sciences to serve as role models and mentors.

From the Yomiuri Shimbun:

Tohoku University is to dispatch “Science Angels”–female volunteer students from its graduate school–to primary, middle and high schools in Sendai to attract more females into science. …

The volunteers will visits schools in the city to interest female students in science and will also provide consultations for females visiting the university campus. …

Prof. Motoko Kotani, who is in charge of the program, said, “An analysis of academic performance by 15-year-olds shows that women are not inferior to men in scientific subjects.”

“The Angels will talk about their studies and daily life, and become role models for the younger generations,” Kotani said.

Studying science is one thing. Seeing yourself as a future scientist requires an additional imaginative leap. If seeing real live women training to be scientists can help more girls make this imaginative leap, that’s a good thing.

Hat tip: Feministe