By Susan Hudson, University Communications
August 4, 2023
Chen wanted to give back to her hometown. She discovered the State Employees Credit Union public fellow internship with the Innovation Mobile Lab through the Carolina Center for Public Service. A partnership of United Way of Franklin County and the biotech company Novozymes, the Innovation Mobile Lab is a science fair on wheels, a Magic School Bus stocked with cool science experiments like making liquid nitrogen ice cream, potato batteries and electronic circuit kits.
Chen sometimes works in the STEAM Lab at Franklinton Middle School, sets up the mobile lab’s portable workstations on site or brings students aboard the bus to use the green screen, mini robots, virtual reality headsets and other high-tech equipment.
“This bus’s mission is what I wanted to resolve back in middle school. It was unfair to see how rural students, my peers, weren’t really exposed to opportunities like this,” Chen said.
To read the full story and learn about what drives Chen to do this work, visit the UNC.edu story experience.