This is not your average public speaking class.
In this skills course, you will develop tools to passionately communicate in a way that excites, engages, and encourages audiences to want to learn more about science. Improvisational theater-based techniques are combined with message design strategies like distilling and storytelling, enabling students to use strategy and spontaneity to execute effective science communication in any context.
You will be taught by an instructor from the internationally renowned science center based at Stony Brook University — Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science.
2025 Pre-College SummerDATES PROGRAM FEE APPLICATION DEADLINE |
Experiential Learning
During this week-long program, you will:
- Use a combination of preparation and spontaneity to connect with audiences
- Communicate vividly and expressively about science
- Use various strategies to make communication about science more effective and engaging
- Analyze science communication examples
- Participate in exercises such as theatre games and role plays to develop communication skills
- Deliver a short presentation for a target audience on a science topic
Instructor
Elizabeth Bojsza
Elizabeth Bojsza (BOY-sha) is passionate about community engagement, empowering voices, and asking good questions. She has been a faculty member at Stony Brook University for over two decades, where she has taught over 25 distinct courses on both the graduate and undergraduate level. She is currently a facilitator and curriculum designer for the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science. She finds it incredibly rewarding to apply the skills of analysis and feedback that she honed as a theater artist to designing curricula and facilitating experiential learning for scientists and healthcare professionals. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in theater and has trained instructors and teachers in various contexts including non-profit theater and higher education. Bojsza regularly teaches Foundations of Science Communication, which introduces graduate students across several different programs to audience-centered science communication and recently taught a graduate elective in Exploring SciArt. She is the curriculum lead for the Alda Healthcare Experience, which offers experiential communication training for healthcare professionals. Between 2022 and 2023 through the support of a HRSA grant, the Alda Healthcare Experience team trained nearly 500 healthcare professionals at Stony Brook Medicine. Prior to her current focus in applied theatre, Ms. Bojsza worked in community performance theatre -- collaborating with communities in the south and northeast US to tell their stories and foster dialogue. She also worked professionally as a literary manager, running the Young Playwrights Inc. playwriting competitions from 2008-2013. She is the program director for the Academy of Civic Life , a pre-college program for local high school students to earn Stony Brook University college credit learning about democracy and civic engagement. Ms. Bojsza served Suffolk County, NY as a human rights commissioner, and is currently the Vice Chair of the Board for Stony Brook Child Care.
