New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
Meet Tiffany Ferreira, a Research Assistant at the University of Massachusetts as part of a Doctoral fellowship and part-time Operations Manager at Southern Lights Solar.
As long as Tiffany could remember she had been good at math and during her high school years had even considered going to college to become a math teacher. With the push of several teachers from New Bedford High School (Ms. Daamguard, Mr. Viera, and Mr. Knickerson; just to name a few) she began her freshman year as a Math major at UMass Dartmouth.
After a few semesters her interests in math had shifted and she became a physics major. During her first few years in college she didn’t really get involved but it wasn’t until the faculty in the Math and Physics department invited her to go to the Undergraduate Women’s Physics conference where she really had a life changing event. During one of the sessions, someone mentioned how only 2 percent of women in undergraduate Physics programs would continue on to receive their Doctorate, and this fact bothered her.
From that point on she made it her mission to advocate for women in the math and science world. Upon graduating from the University of Massachusetts with her Degree in Science and Physics, she was invited to join a doctoral fellowship at the school, where she is studying how to numerically model the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
She is heavily involved with Women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) working to help other people see that there are plenty of opportunities to grow and work in the fields of science, physics.
They have hosted events for OUR Sister’s School for girls on several occasions, teaching them to understand science using games and presentations.
“We have the potential to be a great hub like Boston and New Bedford should look to UMass for all of the opportunities that it has, rather than seeing it as ‘The closest school to go to so it is my last option.’”
Faces of New Bedford is a project by Colton Simmons. If you are interested in booking a shoot or getting prints from the series email all inquiries to colton@coltonsimmons.com
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