The Young Women in STEM club explores science and math through creative and hands-on methods to empower women who are passionate about STEM. The club has shared new strategies to improve turnout at their events and meetings. .
This year, the first meeting was a slime-making event, where club leaders taught members the science behind making slime and later allowed the members to create their own slimes.
Club members were generally satisfied with the event. “I thought it was very fun and engaging,” said sophomore Mohashin Tasfiyah.
To increase the turnout, board members plan on hosting more interactive meetings, like the slime-making event. When asked about what approaches were used to improve the turnout, the President of Young Women in STEM, senior Ana Ramlagan said, “We base our meetings around fun and interactive [events], [where] we complete experiments and engage our members [so that] everyone can bond with their friends and destress, while also learning more about the amazing world of STEM.”
She said, “It’s difficult to consider a balance between what’s fun and engaging for members to return to and what will be educational when planning meetings. To counteract this, we always incorporate an incentive or fun aspect to whatever we’re doing, whether it’s bringing in candy or allowing members to bring home their work after an experiment.”
Junior Kavya Reshamwala, Vice President of Young Women in STEM, emphasized the goal of expanding club membership. Other efforts to work towards this goal included a presence at the club fair, the freshman orientation, and increased activity on Instagram.
Aside from hands-on activities, Ana plans to have professionals in STEM fields speak to club members throughout the year. “We hope to host guest speakers so that members could potentially learn and build connections in spaces they want to have a career in, and create more opportunities for students beyond Townsend Harris, such as partnering with a non-profit. We also plan to donate and raise funds to causes we believe are important in the STEM field.”
Sophomore Michelle Azam said, “I would like to see events about science-related experiments/hands-on projects, guest speaker events, and maybe science-related kahoots or games for prizes.”
Mohashin also expressed her hope for other events. She said, “I would love to see more engaging and scientifically based activities, such as the slime event, and possibly participation in scientific research, or events outside of the school campus.”
With new strategies and goals for the second semester, board members of the club move forward with a number of events planned. Ana hopes that whether it be by hosting more slime-making events, or bringing professionals into the school building, “every girl [has the] opportunity to have a space where they can come for guidance and get the resources they can to succeed in [the STEM field].”
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