Program offers six weeks of real laboratory research, professional mentorship, life skills workshops, and community field trips.
For a decade, one summer program at Miami Dade College’s Homestead Campus has been quietly transforming how young women in South Miami-Dade see themselves in science.
The Microbiology Girls Club (MGC), now celebrating its 10th anniversary, brings 24 girls in grades 7-12 from seven local high schools onto a college campus every summer for six weeks of real laboratory research, professional mentorship, life skills workshops, and community field trips. This year’s program started June 15 and continues through July 24. The Microbiology Girls Club Summer Camp is funded by the Children’s Trust and The American Association of University Women.
Founded and directed by Dr. M. Nia Madison, PhD, professor of microbiology, director of HIV Research, director of Agriscience Research, 2022-25 Simon Bolivar Endowed Teaching Chair and 2026-29 Health Foundation of South Florida Endowed Teaching Chair at MDC Homestead, the MGC is more than a summer camp. It is a bridge.
Every morning, participants suit up in lab coats, gloves, and safety goggles and get to work in an undergraduate microbiology laboratory, growing and analyzing bacteria, performing biochemical tests, and using microscopes to identify unknown microorganisms. They are not watching a demonstration. They are doing the science.
Lunch is catered daily by Kanin Catering and paired with Zoom conversations with professional women in STEM fields from across the country, including university researchers, NSF fellows, and professors from Cornell, Johns Hopkins, and the University of Toronto.
Over six weeks, participants hear from 30 different women who look like them and have built remarkable careers in science. Showing all participants that there is a place in science for all of us and those spaces also feature support systems and mentorship opportunities.
Afternoons bring a variety of 30 different workshops including financial literacy, college preparedness, entrepreneurship, mental health, social media branding, and artificial intelligence, followed by physical activities for 30 days ranging from puppy yoga and ballet to salsa, Tai-Chi, lacrosse and self-defense.
Field trips take students beyond the classroom to Atlantic Sapphire Bluehouse Salmon in Homestead, University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine Science, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Miami Waterkeeper Floating Classroom at Black Point Marina and University of Florida/IFAS Tropical Research and Education Center (TREC).
The results speak for themselves. Historically, 100 percent of MGC alumni enroll at MDC as dual enrollment students, already comfortable in college labs, already connected to faculty, and already clear on their path forward.
This summer, an MGC participant was offered an internship at the field trip site shortly after the MGC site visit. Accepting the position meant truncating her stay in the MGC, but Dr. Madison could only be pleased that the club she established to provide opportunity for girls in STEM is doing just that.
The program closes July 24 with a research poster presentation and awards luncheon for participants and their families.
For more information, and to register for 2027 and/or 2028, contact Dr. M. Nia Madison at mmadison@mdc.edu.
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