- Admin
- #1
Submitted essays were voted on over the summer, and paid out in August 2023, a post here was not made to notify the community. Apologies for that delay; we'll definitely work to do better in the future!
Our two scholarship recipients were Arisa Chue and Laura McGregor!
Arisa's essay:
Laura's essay:
(Belated) congratulations to our scholarship recipients! 📣
Our two scholarship recipients were Arisa Chue and Laura McGregor!
Arisa's essay:
My passion, specifically for the software engineering industry and STEM careers in general, is to help drive engineering to be more equitable, accessible, and inclusive for women. I experienced this imbalance first-hand: I began my freshman year at a STEM magnet school with only six girls in my Design & Tech class. And, I concluded my senior year with only four other girls in my mobile/web app development class. But through it all, I always had strong mentors and role models among my seniors who encouraged and inspired me.
One of the reasons there is gender inequality in STEM workplaces is perhaps because of a constrained pipeline to STEM higher education, which is usually a prerequisite for technology careers. If we could do more to encourage girls and women to explore engineering careers early on, we might have better outcomes. I find it meaningful to create spaces for women to spread their love for STEM because I believe that my actions can impact the gender imbalance in future STEM classes, leading to more diverse workplaces. Even during this pandemic, I tried to bring about this change as president of my school’s Women Interested in Science and Engineering (WISE) organization. We worked with a school that was next door: we shared a fence but little else. This perfectly described our relationship with Weyanoke Elementary School. Ours is a school that competes at the top of the nation. Weyanoke, on the other hand, is ranked in the bottom-half of schools in Virginia with only 12% of the students achieving satisfactory proficiency levels in math. WISE strives to close this gap by serving as role-models for our little sisters next door as we organize weekly STEM labs for them to stimulate interest in science and technology.
After the onset of COVID-19, I wanted to continue our engaging lab focus in a virtual environment. In addition to brainstorming online lab ideas and communicating with members about upcoming labs, I coordinated with Weyanoke's bus delivery service to send materials for our take-home lab demonstrations. We tried to replicate our in-person labs; we turned on cameras and created breakout rooms as we conducted the labs with the Weyanoke girls over video. The fourth graders loved it—maybe that’s because of the bonus candy I included in our lab packages. We also started a virtual pen-pal program between the Weyanoke girls and WISE members, conveying our energy for STEM to the younger generation during this time of isolation.
As I see the girls boast about their extracted banana DNA strands in Zoom breakout sessions or send email updates about their pea plants, I know their excitement will evolve into a passion for STEM.
Sharing my enthusiasm with these girls has been rewarding for me. Directing WISE is not only my attempt to encourage our 165 female members to express their fascination for STEM, but it’s also an investment to nurture a new generation of female scientists. Perhaps the little girls I saw slicing bananas will go forward to chase Ph.Ds or Nobel Prizes.
I'm continuing this mission as the Outreach Chair/Vice-President at Stanford's Society of Women Engineers (SWE) where we have the same goals of promoting engineering to K-12 students in the Stanford local community. I am part of a team that brings hundreds of students from across the San Francisco Bay Area to participate in interactive demos and hands-on team activities. Other projects include a mentorship program in which we pair high school girls with SWE members for a quarter to work on a hands-on engineering project. Mentor and mentee pairs meet once a month to work on an engineering project and learn about preparing for college. The mentor-mentee pairs work on projects involving a range of topics including: App Development, Physics, Robotics, Social Entrepreneurship, and more.
Still, in computer science today, women and minorities are underrepresented, and there are still many barriers to overcome.
I have used my voice and my platform to advocate for change and raise awareness about the importance of diversity and inclusion. I have also joined and helped to create various groups that support and encourage women and other underrepresented groups in technology.
I learned how important it is to lead and inspire: we all serve as role models to broaden participation in computing careers, and we broadcast this by sharing our path of success with others. Just like how I got started in computer science myself, I hope to build on this virtuous cycle of mentorship to motivate others.
One of the reasons there is gender inequality in STEM workplaces is perhaps because of a constrained pipeline to STEM higher education, which is usually a prerequisite for technology careers. If we could do more to encourage girls and women to explore engineering careers early on, we might have better outcomes. I find it meaningful to create spaces for women to spread their love for STEM because I believe that my actions can impact the gender imbalance in future STEM classes, leading to more diverse workplaces. Even during this pandemic, I tried to bring about this change as president of my school’s Women Interested in Science and Engineering (WISE) organization. We worked with a school that was next door: we shared a fence but little else. This perfectly described our relationship with Weyanoke Elementary School. Ours is a school that competes at the top of the nation. Weyanoke, on the other hand, is ranked in the bottom-half of schools in Virginia with only 12% of the students achieving satisfactory proficiency levels in math. WISE strives to close this gap by serving as role-models for our little sisters next door as we organize weekly STEM labs for them to stimulate interest in science and technology.
After the onset of COVID-19, I wanted to continue our engaging lab focus in a virtual environment. In addition to brainstorming online lab ideas and communicating with members about upcoming labs, I coordinated with Weyanoke's bus delivery service to send materials for our take-home lab demonstrations. We tried to replicate our in-person labs; we turned on cameras and created breakout rooms as we conducted the labs with the Weyanoke girls over video. The fourth graders loved it—maybe that’s because of the bonus candy I included in our lab packages. We also started a virtual pen-pal program between the Weyanoke girls and WISE members, conveying our energy for STEM to the younger generation during this time of isolation.
As I see the girls boast about their extracted banana DNA strands in Zoom breakout sessions or send email updates about their pea plants, I know their excitement will evolve into a passion for STEM.
Sharing my enthusiasm with these girls has been rewarding for me. Directing WISE is not only my attempt to encourage our 165 female members to express their fascination for STEM, but it’s also an investment to nurture a new generation of female scientists. Perhaps the little girls I saw slicing bananas will go forward to chase Ph.Ds or Nobel Prizes.
I'm continuing this mission as the Outreach Chair/Vice-President at Stanford's Society of Women Engineers (SWE) where we have the same goals of promoting engineering to K-12 students in the Stanford local community. I am part of a team that brings hundreds of students from across the San Francisco Bay Area to participate in interactive demos and hands-on team activities. Other projects include a mentorship program in which we pair high school girls with SWE members for a quarter to work on a hands-on engineering project. Mentor and mentee pairs meet once a month to work on an engineering project and learn about preparing for college. The mentor-mentee pairs work on projects involving a range of topics including: App Development, Physics, Robotics, Social Entrepreneurship, and more.
Still, in computer science today, women and minorities are underrepresented, and there are still many barriers to overcome.
I have used my voice and my platform to advocate for change and raise awareness about the importance of diversity and inclusion. I have also joined and helped to create various groups that support and encourage women and other underrepresented groups in technology.
I learned how important it is to lead and inspire: we all serve as role models to broaden participation in computing careers, and we broadcast this by sharing our path of success with others. Just like how I got started in computer science myself, I hope to build on this virtuous cycle of mentorship to motivate others.
Laura's essay:
As an Accounting major, I plan on using my education to help people understand finances so they will be able to not stress about the way their money is spent. If everyone understood their finances a little better, there would not have to be as much debt as people have now. In most places in the world now, a lot of families worry about money and how they can get more to help their family be happy. If I could help families understand their budgets, then maybe, it could help them not to have as much stress in their life and therefore could enjoy other things instead. Life should not be just to survive. One needs to live and be able to interact with others so they can grow and have fun memories with people who care for them.
I also plan to try and volunteer time to teach teenagers or young adults a little about finances so they can start on the right foot for being on their own and not have the stress of how to create a budget when they first leave home. It would give them an opportunity to learn and make mistakes before leaving home. A lot of youth organizations try to get volunteers to help teach children about finances so it would be a good place to start because the next generation can hopefully not have the stress adults have now about financing and having to go into debt just to make ends meet.
I am hoping for other people to follow suit in my community to help others with financial goals. There seems to be fewer community classes on budgeting and finances as I have grown up. I hope that I can teach a few classes to help my community learn about budgeting. I have seen a lot of parents at shops tell their children no for something the child wants with a sad look on their faces. I have been there, not many parents want to tell their young child no for wanting a toy or book that could help them learn after helping their parents and much as they could.
The main thing is I want to be able to help as many people as I can understand finances and budgeting, no matter what their age is. People going into debt are getting worse as time passes. If more people had the knowledge of finances and budgeting, I am hoping not as many people would take on debt and could get the help, they need to make their financial goals in life. It is important to enjoy life, not just survive by barely making ends meet. Life is something to be cherished with happy memories with people who love and care for you. If I could just help get rid of some stress by sharing my knowledge, I would share with my children that anything is possible if one shares knowledge with another.
I also plan to try and volunteer time to teach teenagers or young adults a little about finances so they can start on the right foot for being on their own and not have the stress of how to create a budget when they first leave home. It would give them an opportunity to learn and make mistakes before leaving home. A lot of youth organizations try to get volunteers to help teach children about finances so it would be a good place to start because the next generation can hopefully not have the stress adults have now about financing and having to go into debt just to make ends meet.
I am hoping for other people to follow suit in my community to help others with financial goals. There seems to be fewer community classes on budgeting and finances as I have grown up. I hope that I can teach a few classes to help my community learn about budgeting. I have seen a lot of parents at shops tell their children no for something the child wants with a sad look on their faces. I have been there, not many parents want to tell their young child no for wanting a toy or book that could help them learn after helping their parents and much as they could.
The main thing is I want to be able to help as many people as I can understand finances and budgeting, no matter what their age is. People going into debt are getting worse as time passes. If more people had the knowledge of finances and budgeting, I am hoping not as many people would take on debt and could get the help, they need to make their financial goals in life. It is important to enjoy life, not just survive by barely making ends meet. Life is something to be cherished with happy memories with people who love and care for you. If I could just help get rid of some stress by sharing my knowledge, I would share with my children that anything is possible if one shares knowledge with another.
(Belated) congratulations to our scholarship recipients! 📣
