By Maddie Nerad
Staff Writer
In a world that is quickly advancing in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), a larger workforce is needed. Currently, very few women choose to pursue jobs in STEM. The new Girls Advancing Leadership in STEM Club at Mira Costa is seeking to change that.
GALS Club was created this year by sophomore club president Alison Doami. The goal of this club is to inform high school girls about the various STEM careers available to them and to help them gain the confidence and leadership necessary for success.
“Statistics show that in the field of engineering, the ratio of men to women is nine to one,” GALS event coordinator sophomore TJ Ford said. “We feel it is a real problem which we hope to fix by encouraging girls to explore the sciences in hope of them one day pursuing a career in the math or science field. Even if only one girl considers a job in the sciences and feels competent enough to pursue it, we’ve done our job.”
Doami started the club because she could not find a science-related club she was passionate about at Mira Costa. After joining a couple clubs and not being satisfied, she decided to start her own.
“As a freshman, I knew that I wanted to get involved in something that I loved,” Doami said. “I wanted to start my own club that would fulfill my expectations in learning more about the science fields and having women leadership positions in them.”
According to Doami, the GALS Club was not trying to be exclusive when it decided to only allow females to join the club. Doami wanted to focus on empowering girls and bringing awareness to the fact that women currently make up less than a quarter of the STEM workforce.
“When I see college science-related courses [at Costa], I only see a few girls among many boys in the class,” Doami said. “I want that number of girls to increase so that women can have a bigger role in our society.”
During club meetings, members create experiments in Costa’s lab facilities. The club also prepares for national high school science competitions, such as the Intel and Siemens competitions, which could grant them scholarships and help fund club activities.
“We also hope to host a variety of women as speakers that would teach about their careers and lives as females in the sciences,” Ford said. “We already have several women engineers and aerospace scientists that plan on coming and speaking and doing a little question-and-answer session.”
Club members are looking to participate in a variety of volunteer opportunities at major science museums in the area, including the La Brea Tar Pits, the California Science Center and the Aquarium of the Pacific. The GALS Club is also looking to offer free science tutoring to inner-city students.
“If we’re accepted into the volunteering program at the La Brea Tar Pits, we will actually be able to handle and clean small fossils and help curate and organize them, which would be amazing hands-on experience for us,” Ford said. “At the Science Center and Long Beach Aquarium we would be able to help out children visitors, help guide groups or just help out the concierge.”
Doami would like to spread awareness of the different career opportunities for females in the STEM workforce beyond high school and set up assemblies at Manhattan Beach Middle School and elementary schools in the area. The members hope to demonstrate experiments and talk about the possibilities for careers in STEM.
“By demonstrating different experiments that relate to different science careers, we could show them how fun science is, and they could get an early interest in the STEM fields,” Doami said.
GALS Club meets every Wednesday in room 75 and is sponsored by biology and chemistry teacher Yoon Hearn. The club welcomes new female members, especially those with an interest in science and math.
“As the president of the GALS Club at Costa, I am responsible for educating and informing our high school girls about the many opportunities in the science and math world and to show examples of female leadership in the Manhattan Beach community,” Doami said.
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