Women in STEM

As students lined up outside the doors of the Forum to grab a slice of pizza, student, teacher and professional panelists sat inside, preparing to discuss issues surrounding women in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Last Friday, Feb. 3, uppers Isadora Kron and Madison Kang hosted a panel that provided students, faculty and alumni the opportunity to learn more about the female experience in STEM here at Exeter and beyond.

To prepare for the event, Kron said that they reached out to students who were “really interested and involved in STEM at Exeter.” However, Kron and Kang faced a challenge when trying to find a female faculty member in the STEM fields who had time to share their experiences. “We contacted almost all of the female STEM teachers at Exeter and only got one that was available, so that was also a difficulty for planning it,” Kron said. “I think it was really hard to get faculty members because they were just really busy that weekend.”

“It was nice to have an alumna who could speak on her STEM experience both on the Exeter campus, college and at work,”

Despite minor setbacks, Kron and Kang did an excellent job in gathering their final panelists for Friday. Upper Jenny Yang and seniors Dara Okeremi and Ivy Tran were among the student panelists, while computer science instructor Ranila Haider served as a faculty panelist. “We were super lucky to have Ms. Haider as a faculty panelist, especially since she represents the computer science department, a STEM field especially lacking in female participants,” Kang said.

When looking for an alumna, the organizers narrowed their search to recent PEA graduates who work in STEM near the Exeter area and who were willing to come back to campus for the event. Alumna panelist Emily Rittershaus, who now works at a biotechnology company in Cambridge, MA, was eager to participate in the event. “It was nice to have an alumna who could speak on her STEM experience both on the Exeter campus, college and at work,” Kang said.

Kron and Kang were inspired by last year’s forum, which was a collaboration between former editor-in-chief of MATTER Magazine, Connie Cai ‘17, and the former head of Fem Club, Autumn Herness ‘17. One of their main goals was to ensure that different perspectives were heard. “We wanted [to] hear new voices, so we invited new panelists and one alumna to speak,” Kang said. Kron agreed, saying, “I personally have had some experiences in my STEM classes where I felt like because I’m a woman, I just felt silenced. I think that’s a really common experience.” She hopes to hear even more perspectives next year.

On Friday night, Kang and Kron came prepared with questions that they deemed to be relevant to the conversation. “Last week in Fem Club, we discussed women in STEM, so a lot of the stories that we heard informed the questions that we asked,” Kron said.

These questions explored how girls get involved in STEM fields, their learning in often male-dominated high school and college classroom environments, leadership in the workplace and future opportunities for women in STEM.

“I think that those questions went really well and there were good suggestions that were voiced,” Kron said. Panelist Ivy Tran agreed, saying that “there were a lot of questions from Isadora and Madison that kept the conversation going.” However, she expressed disappointment in the  lack of interaction between the audience and the panel. “I would have wished for more questions from the audience,” Tran said.

Lower David Kim thought the forum was a success because it opened his eyes to “how [women] feel about being in classes when the majority [of students] are male.” Like Kim, many of the students who attended the forum found it to be very informative about the experiences of women in STEM. All who attended felt that the forum prompted valuable discussions. Tran said, “We talked a lot about girls’ confidence in STEM classes, and so just having a forum like that to show that everyone struggles and that it’s ok to be wrong sometimes can empower women and girls in STEM classes.”