The Letters to a Pre-Scientist team is small, mighty, and deeply committed to the students, teachers, and STEM professionals we serve – and to each other.
We spend a lot of time talking about what happens in classrooms. But we don’t always pull back the curtain on what it takes to make those moments happen.
The logistics, the problem-solving, the million small decisions that mean 98% of our students stay matched with the same pen pal all year – and every single student gets a letter on every Letter Opening Day.
So Program Manager Laura shared a real, unfiltered look at her day.
Laura works from Grant, Michigan – and from there, she’s the point of contact for 26 of our teachers and 1,664 STEM pen pal volunteers, managing every one of those student -pen pal relationships.
Thank you, Laura! 💙
It’s easy to assume that the letters magically happen by themselves. But as you will see, there’s so much that happens behind the scenes!
8:15 AM – Coffee starts brewing automatically because I’ve learned I cannot be trusted to function without it. ☕
8:20 AM – Start a load of laundry. Will I remember to switch it later? Stay tuned… 🌀
8:30 AM – Daily crisis: What’s for dinner? (It’s not even 9 AM… why am I like this?) 🤔
→ Baldr 🐶 stares at me like I should have had this figured out yesterday.
9:00 AM – Open Slack and brace myself. What happened overnight? 😅
→ A student left the program 😬, so I need to let the pen pal know
→ Mrs. Stimpert asked about her supply order (stamps and envelopes)… make sure Lucy authorizes it first. Let’s hope I don’t forget to place her order! 🙏
9:30 AM – Teacher progress check
→ Who still needs to send letters?
→ Who needs an extension?
9:35 AM – Letter Opening Party prep 🎉
→ Track missing letters
→ Send reminders
→ Set a 3 PM deadline ⏰ before I have to rematch pre-scientists
→ Casually prepare for potential chaos (aka having to find a new STEM pen pal for a student who can very quickly write a letter to their new friend so they aren’t left out on letter opening day – what we call rematching 🧩)
10:15 AM – Make another attempt to get my last three teachers to complete a survey – this time im making them a Loom video to see if that gets their attention. We need this info soon so we can prepare for next year! 🎥
“Quick survey!” I say… knowing full well teachers are BUSY.
10:25 AM – New pre-scientists onboarded! 🎉
→ Verify permission slips
→ Time for my FAVORITE task: finding the perfect pen pal match for each new student like its a very wholesome dating app 🔬💌
11:05 AM – Supply orders 📦 USPS is the worst site to work with. I am so much happier ordering from Amazon. 🙃
→ Baldr’s judging eyes follow me, silently demanding a “snack check” for moral
11:55 AM – Baldr 🐶 silently judging me from the couch
→ Translation: “It is time. We go outside now.”
→ Quick, cold walk approved ❄️
→ He somehow convinces me a 5-minute walk is also a full workout.
12:10 PM – Snack + email marathon
→ Answer questions
→ Problem-solve participation challenges
→ Celebrate wins 🎉
→ Try to keep up with a BIG week (17 of my classes are scheduled to open 850 letters this week, and I need to make sure every single letter is in 😳💌)
3:00 PM – Program Manager meeting
4:00 PM – Back to Slack (round 2 🥊)
4:15 PM – The 3 PM deadline aftermath…
→ 1 letter came in 🙌
→ 2 students need rematching 😬
→ Send URGENT emails to 6 STEM Professionals
→ First responders win (basically The Hunger Games, but wholesome 💖)
✨ SUCCESS: Both students matched 🎉
5:05 PM – Create match cards, update everything, log off
🧠 Did I switch the laundry?
🤷♀️ That’s tomorrow morning’s problem.
🍽️ Did I figure out dinner? Baldr approves of Baked Chicken and Baked Potatoes
✨ Program Manager life = part logistics wizard, part matchmaker, part professional emailer, and part “let’s just see what happens today… hopefully with snacks and coffee.”
