Graphic by Raj Brodie
Sammy McClintock
Features Columnist
It is well known that there is a large gender gap in many male-dominated STEM fields, mainly due to sexism and a lack of mentorship for women. Newton South STEM classes are no exception to this—as the difficulty level of classes increases, the number of girls in the class drops dramatically. Women in STEM Club provides students with a supportive space and group of role models to look up to, encouraging girls to stay in these difficult classes and possibly pursue STEM careers later in life.
This year, the club held its second annual Women in STEM Day, featuring four blocks of speakers and panelists that spoke about their unique careers and experiences. “We bring in speakers so girls can see themselves as being successful,” explained senior Martie Fairchild, one of the leaders of WIS Club. “We also want to highlight notable women in STEM. I think that’s really cool and important because not a lot of people know these are possibilities or these careers even exist.”
The first block featured a diverse panel of established women in STEM. They explained their career paths and answered questions about the challenges they have faced.
“I really liked the first group because they had a really diverse perspective on things…they all had similar experiences being a woman in STEM, but different experiences within their field. I thought that was very interesting to see a wide collection of women that were doing awesome things,” said Fairchild.
The next block was a group of Newton South alumni who went on to a career in a STEM-related field. Junior Jackie Holt, another leader of WIS Club, said, “My favorite group of speakers was the South alum panel because it’s really interesting to hear about girls who might have had the same teacher as you or just really similar experiences. They’re easiest to look at as role models.”
Next, Dr. Natalie Kuldell walked through her experience working for a company called BioBuilder. The goal of BioBuilder is to make newer biology concepts more teachable to high school students. “She talked a lot about different ways you can solve a problem. Like you can do reverse engineering, or you can start from scratch, so I thought that was really interesting,” said Fairchild.
Lastly, Dr. Satabhisa Mukhopadhyay spoke about her cancer research. She is currently the founder and chief scientist of a company called 4D Path.
All of these inspiring speakers’ experiences helped encourage more women to enter male-dominated fields, and showed them all the options they have as women in STEM. Fairchild added that oftentimes girls in STEM classes “have this imposter syndrome where you feel like you’re not good enough or have to be head of the class in order to stay in it, which is not true.” By seeing real role models on Women in STEM Day, girls watching will feel like they can be successful in a STEM field as well.
“A lot of the time girls in STEM classes might feel uncomfortable or like there’s not a supportive space for them, and just having that community with supportive peers will just help girls have the confidence to do whatever they want,” Holt concluded.
