This student story was written as part of the 2026 NASW Perlman Virtual Mentoring Program organized by the NASW Education Committee, providing science journalism experience for undergraduate and graduate students.
Story by Kailynn Weaver
Mentored and edited by Josh Chamot
Read this story at The Scientist.
Main header image credit: “Health, Doctor and Legal Issues” by Weiss and Paarz Medical Malpractice Attorneys (https://www.weisspaarz.com/). Creative Commons License CC BY-SA 2.0
Kailynn Weaver is a senior Biology student at Prairie View A&M University with a passion for cardiovascular research, leadership, and service. She is committed to using science to improve health outcomes while advocating for equity in healthcare and STEM. Beyond academics, Kailynn enjoys mentoring students, engaging in campus leadership, and promoting initiatives that empower others to live healthy lives. She values lifelong learning and spends her free time reading, running, and creating fresh juices. You can find her on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/kailynnmweaver .
Josh Chamot is the host of Someday, in Science. His current role follows a nearly two-decade career at the U.S. National Science Foundation, most recently as the media officer for artificial intelligence. Previous roles included communications positions at the Smithsonian, Climate Nexus, and the U.S. Department of Energy, and he served as founding editor of the Expert Voices Op-Ed and features platform for Space.com and LiveScience.com. https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-chamot/
The NASW Perlman Virtual Mentoring program is named for longtime science writer and past NASW President David Perlman. Dave, who died in 2020 at the age of 101 only three years after his retirement from the San Francisco Chronicle, was a mentor to countless members of the science writing community and always made time for kind and supportive words, especially for early career writers.
You can contact the NASW Education Committee at education@nasw.org. Thank you to the many NASW member volunteers who lead our #SciWriStudent programming year after year.
Founded in 1934 with a mission to fight for the free flow of science news, NASW is an organization of ~ 2,300 professional journalists, authors, editors, producers, public information officers, students and people who write and produce material intended to inform the public about science, health, engineering, and technology. To learn more, visit www.nasw.org
