Pupil in the Netherlands wins Native Awards 2023

Native Scientists celebrate the creativity of pupils who participate in its educational programmes through the yearly Native Scientists awards. This year's winner for the Same Migrant Community (SMC) programme is Sofia from The Hague (NL).

At its  eleventh edition, Native Scientists celebrate pupil's imagination and creativity as well as their perception of ‘what a scientist is’ and ‘what would they do if they were a scientist’. The Native Awards comprises two categories: the drawing category and the sentence category. Every pupil taking part in one of the workshops held from the SMC programme throughout the year, has the chance to send their work.  The entries are then reviewed by the Awards Manager and the SMC Programme Lead. A selection of the most original ones is then taken to a wide vote by the Native Scientists core team.     

In the school year 2022/2023, the representation of women as scientists was higher than that of men. The sentences were mainly fun, but there were also some more solid ones.  

The Native Awards 2023 winner for both the “Best Sentence” and “Best Drawing” categories is 8 year-old Sofia from the Hague, Netherlands, where she attended a Portuguese workshop.  

In assigning the prize, the Jury said “Sofia’s work is fun but also shows creativity by focusing on a person she loves and what she would do in order to spend time together and enjoy with them one of her favourite foods”.  

Food intolerance is becoming a more pressing issue and Sofia is clearly thinking a lot about how she can make a pizza that her grandmother will be able to eat without compromising her health. 

Talking about the workshop, Sofia said that it was really fun, insightful and entertaining. Sofia was surprised to win the award for our two different categories and was shy at first, but very happy to receive it from the workshop’s coordinator Luiz Lima. Sofia would like to pursue a career as a fashion designer, and clearly she has a lot of talent as seen by her drawing! Sofia received the prizes during a Christmas event at the workshop’s host school. The school and her fellow pupils were also so excited for Sofia and made a collage of pictures for her. 

The winners received the book “Outside”, autographed by the author Maria Ana Peixe Dias and Inês Teixeira do Rosario. Native Scientists Director Joana Moscoso: "Looking at the entries for the Native Awards is one of my favourite moments of the year. Congratulations to Sofia for winning the two categories, it’s something exceptional. I would also like to acknowledge the effort from everyone involved in this endeavour, especially Luiz Lima, the coordinator of the workshop,  Smaragda Papadoupoulou the Awards Manager, the students, their teacher Jan van Nassauschool, and their parents. ”

About Native Scientists

Native Scientists connect children and scientists to promote science literacy and reduce inequalities. In the classroom or beyond, Native Scientists actively engage with 250+ scientists every year, inspiring over 1,200 pupils to consider science and higher education. With the Same Migrant Community programme, scientists and children with a common cultural background are connected to talk about science in their heritage language.