Meet Nora Sun. A Walter Payton College Prep student who created a global scientific research competition for female and genderqueer high school students.

Nora Sun, 17, does science internships like hobbies — intensely and frequently. Research, writing, computational drug design and queer literature are all interests.

A glimpse at her LinkedIn page finds that during the pandemic, the Walter Payton College Prep High School student researched inflammatory bowel disease mutations at the University of Illinois at Chicago and is currently researching DNA polymerase inhibitors with the University of Texas at Dallas.

If that’s not enough to have you crying over your wasted youth, Sun, at the age of 14, founded Envision, an annual international research competition for female, genderqueer and nonbinary high school students interested in science, technology, engineering and math fields. The competition invites students to write a formal research proposal to win monetary awards. The competition allows students practice in formal scientific proposal writing, collaboration and literature review (looking through published scientific literature to gain insights which may support proposals).

“In middle school and early high school, I participated in a lot of science research competitions. I tried to do some research on my own. And I wasn’t always successful, but I realized that I really loved it,” Sun said. “At the beginning of high school, I became aware that there were a lot of gender disparities in academia. Something else I learned: research is very important for a scientific career. You need publications, research experience to get opportunities which help build your academic career. And there is a dearth of these opportunities for girls. I felt if I created this competition, it would encourage more girls to start practicing writing proposals and hopefully that can lead more to be interested in research or at least get practice in writing a research proposal.”

Since founding Envision in 2019 and serving as executive director, 328 students have entered the competition, awarded $1,600 to youth, and recruited hundreds of judges — 65% of whom are postdoctoral scholars or faculty from Ivy League institutions that select winners and provide detailed feedback and constructive criticism on all entries. The review of their work by STEM professionals opens up dialogue for mentorship/internship opportunities and further conversation.

Sun’s STEM and research passions have grown from Envision to the creation of other nonprofits centered on underrepresented high school students and increasing cognitive diversity in science fields. The Talaria Summer Institute she founded is a free, international mentorship program and ATHENA by Women In STEM is an endeavor she cofounded — both aid in youth pursuing STEM. Talaria Summer Institute pairs ATHENA members with a mentor to conduct a monthlong independent research project every July. As for Envision, Sun said she took a lot of inspiration from grant application processes for scientists. It’s through proposal writing that scientists apply for grants and get money to conduct research.

“That’s the skill set I wanted participants to learn,” Sun said. “I thought it would be best for the judges, since our judges are professors who write lots of grants. In terms of what the competition entails, I really wanted to help kids understand the factors that made a good proposal. I hope the competition emphasizes the need to identify a gap that affects a lot of people or affects some people very deeply.”

Sun said she hopes competitors’ curiosity is sparked enough to pursue their project in a lab setting — possibly taking their idea to one of the professors who served as judge, since their contact information is shared. If they can’t find a connection through that channel or find someone locally who does similar research, Talaria attempts to provide that connection.

Athena Scarlett Krikorian, 17, a Los Angeles resident, is looking forward to a career in dermatology to focus on skin cancer research. She competed in the Envision proposal competition in 2021 with a pitch that combined her passion over climate change issues impacting skin globally. Through Talaria, Scarlett Krikorian was partnered with a professor from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts to do further research over the summer. Sara Yousaf, an 11th grader in Toronto, won the 2021 Envision competition with a proposal on developing a 3D tissue model of the blood brain barrier for drug testing and disease modeling.

Jasmine Lunia, a Dallas native, competed in Envision’s research proposal competition for the last three years. The soon to be Wellesley College freshman said she wanted to use her free time during the pandemic to get more involved in science. She’s written proposals on epidemiology, forensic anthropology and a new assessment to diagnose autism spectrum disorders. She’s looking into a career in scientific research.

“I really wish there were more opportunities like this, not just for women, but really, for anyone who wants to get into scientific research,” Lunia said.

Notre Dame High School, San Jose students Sumayyah Ismail and Anchal Bhardwaj competed as a team for the Envision contest in 2020. The pair has since won other science competitions after developing their Envision idea past the contest. Envision was the launching pad for the project that they submitted to a California science fair.

“Envision is unique because it targets a certain audience and it makes sure that you get actual, substantial feedback on your work — those two things we were unable to find anywhere else which is why we decided to participate,” Bhardwaj said. Their proposal focused using convolutional networks to classify schizophrenia, connecting Bhardwaj’s computer science interest with Ismail’s neuroscience interest. “It was basically trying to figure out, previous methods that were being used in the industry? New methods that are being researched? And how can we connect technology to this?” Bhardwaj said.

Ismail said one of their goals is to get their proposal and project published in a peer reviewed journal. They are looking forward to the next Envision science proposal competition with another idea.

“One of the things that really fascinated me about all the entries is that they had no limitations for innovation — no financial or experimental boundaries,” said Ananthanarayanan Kumar, a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University studying RNA structures in humans. He has served as an Envision judge for two years. “All the projects are very innovative. In the process, students learn a lot of skills that they don’t realize they’re learning, such as how to bring an idea from scratch to execution and how to be persuasive with objective reasoning — that really helps them in the long term.”

One standout proposal entry for Kumar: Use of anaerobic digesters to biodegrade food waste in homes. A student designed a bioreactor that can be connected to a waste tube in the kitchen and thought about the engineering aspects of where to place the compressor. Judging criteria includes the significance of the project, feasibility and the approach students take. “At this stage students have nothing stopping them ... as long as the idea is concrete, I’m very excited to encourage them,” he said.

Chitvan Mittal, a research associate at Cornell University, has been a judge for two years. The proposals that catch her eye focus on challenges participants are trying to address, relevant topics in today’s society.

“These high school students are fearless,” she said. “They all seem to tackle the bottlenecks and the challenges that no one else tends to think about. I love that.”

Kumar thinks the program can introduce students to potential STEM role models. Mittal agreed. As a woman of color, Mittal tries to encourage as many youths as she can when it comes to STEM. “They need to be able to see what’s possible out there,” she said. “The more we talk to them so they can see the opportunities, see it as this is something that I can explore, that’s all that matters.”

Yale postdoc Avisek Banerjee looks forward to talking with Envision participants. Be it offering help about future plans in STEM or steps one should consider in college, he’s there for it.

“How to write scientifically has never been taught directly and it’s one of the key sources of success in academia,” Banerjee said. “The uniqueness of Envision is that just with participation, the student gets a lot of experience ... with their idea of how to write science. In the long term, it will be very beneficial.”

When approached by Sun to serve as a judge, Mittal, who focuses on cancer genetics, immediately said yes.

“I’ve been trying to mentor as many young scientists in the making as possible,” she said. “I plan to do this as many times as I can ... to help as many kids as possible. I’m so glad that Nora and her team has been doing this consistently.”

Sun is on a trajectory to pursue a Ph.D. in cellular biology or biochemistry. The West Loop resident said she wants to study drug design to try to improve computational methods to shorten the research and development process and drastically cut the cost of medications.

“I hope that after doing this competition and reading judges’ feedback, they understand the research ideation proposal process a bit better, or they’re more interested in learning more about it,” Sun said.

Abigail Wilberding, an AP seminar teacher at Payton College Prep, considers Sun one of the most passionate students she has ever taught; a total powerhouse with relentless dedication and curiosity. A born researcher and storyteller, Wilberding says Sun writes scientific studies like they are homework assignments.

“She is one of those remarkable human beings who’s passionate about what she does, and has an interest and follows it to such a degree that she is transforming spaces, transforming the world, transforming her school and it’s every day for her,” Wilberding said. “She marries storytelling and science. So it’s no shock that this project has been so successful. She has this intensity and this relentless faith in the projects that she creates and the projects that she leads to bring her voice and her sense of self into the world and into the world of science in really meaningful ways.”

In an AP seminar paper, Sun wrote science blends with imagination in her head and her ideas live harmoniously among her stories. The last line of the paper for Wilberding’s class: “Santa Claus was born from imagination, and if you can make an argument for your imagination ... well, that’s called science.”

The Envision research proposal competition will close the application process late fall/early winter, with winners announced in the spring of 2023.

drockett@chicagotribune.com