The school’s women in STEM club is encouraging young females with different ways to start their career path in a male-dominated field.
The four subjects of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), highlight a vigorous workload with little ease. The cognitive, thought-provoking subject matter has been seen as a “man’s job”
Women in STEM find gender equality to be prevalent in the future, the club encourages young women to pursue STEM without regard to the basis of sex. Junior Genevieve McShane explains how the club unites females in the field. “The club gives girls the opportunity to collaborate with and talk to other girls who are interested in STEM-related careers,” she said.
Chemistry teacher, Megan Bildner, oversees and advises the club. “My original idea to start a club of this sort was to encourage girls to pursue STEM careers within our building, but also once they leave PVHS,” said Bildner. The girls meet multiple times a month, on Wednesday mornings. In addition to the weekly meetings, the club takes on many activities and field trips to show the participants the different realms of STEM.
Often being able to Skype women in the field, the club is exposed to the encouragement of current professionals. McShane shared a special tool that the group uses to make these calls possible. “We do this by using a program, ‘Skype a Scientist’,” adding, “by using this program we are able to contact professionals from around the world and talk to them about their careers,” she said.
McShane further elaborated on being able to talk to these professionals really sparked her interest in wanting to pursue a STEM career. “I want to do something with engineering, specifically mechanical engineering,” she shared. “Without the help of this club, I wouldn’t have been given the chance to talk to these professionals.”
The young ladies in the club are also given the chance to inspire others. Each month, after early dismissals, the club visits each of the district elementary schools. They teach third through sixth graders how to code with two different programs. Along with that, the girls participate in district STEM night in the spring.
With the work that these young ladies put in, the hope is to eliminate the male-dominated stereotype.
