On Saturday, February 7, a sunny morning with several inches of lingering snow, ten PBS graduate students took a break from their academic endeavors to volunteer at the 2026 Girls Inc. Annual ScienceFest, billed as a celebration of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. The PBS volunteers were joined by volunteers from other IU science departments, as well as those from Ivy Tech and local science-oriented organizations, each setting up a table with activities and information for kids reflecting the work they do.
The atmosphere was buzzy and festive at the West 8th Street Girls Inc. headquarters. An IU sorority-run face-painting station greeted
visitors at they entered, along with a group of high school girls in over-the-top princess costumes, and a man in a larger-than-life-size blow-up dinosaur, dancing to the pop music playing in the background.
Among those at the PBS table was Jasmine Bigelow, who for three years has co-organized PBS participation in the event with fellow PBS graduate student Siyan Xiong. They were joined this year by: Chloe Mitchell, Cody Hubbard, Emma Tusuzian, Julia Kim, Mackenzie Siesel, Mariana Sosa, Noor Chaudhry, and Sophia Priatka.
A third-year graduate student, Bigelow is a member of the InterACT Lab of PBS Professor Natasha Chaku, or as Bigelow refers to her, “the adolescent development queen.” The lab, says Bigelow, explores the bio-psycho-social changes of adolescence, “everything from puberty and cognitive development to social relationship changes across the teenage years.”
Her own niche is looking at how social behavioral trajectories such as aggression changes and pro-social behaviors may be influenced by peers and school contexts.” She’s the lead graduate student on one of Chaku’s projects focused on how the transition from elementary to middle school affects development, which ultimately seeks to understand the social, academic, and psychological factors most important for a successful transition.
In a sense, the Girls Inc. ScienceFest brings her into contact with those in the age group she studies. “It’s fun in that way,” she says. “I often wonder how much their situation might relate to what I’m theorizing about. You think kids act one way when you’re reading about them, while the reality could be very different. It’s key to think about how to link the two” – which is why she ultimately hopes to spend more time in local schools to observe kids more closely.
For now, however, she enjoys the opportunity to connect with the community, share her long-time love of science, and increase awareness of psychological and brain sciences. She is grateful for the connection she and Xiong have established with Girls Inc. and admits that “It’ll be sad someday to pass the baton on to the next cohort.”
The College of Arts