Bustling crowds, excited voices, and the vibrating energy of young inquisitive minds fill the lecture halls.
This year, for the first time, Millard North held an in-person STEM event: an interactive STEM Fair.
On the night of Nov. 16, students discovered and explored careers in the field, met with professionals, engaged in fun and enriching activities, and overall expanded their horizons.
Previously, this event has been held on Zoom and aimed at elementary school students to learn the basics of the STEM field.
Instead, the Women in STEM club, led by science teacher Korian Pfeifer and four student leaders, sought to involve middle and high school students and turn the event into an opportunity to hear from scientists and STEM educators about what they do.
“At this school, we have a lot of students whose parents are doctors, but those are careers we know about. We really wanted to get into the niche communities, so we have some research and development people, food science, and animal science people coming in,” Pfeifer said.
Geri Simpson, a Research and Development Specialist at Conagra Brands discussed the opportunities open for students who want to make foods consumers love. The research of Chris Engsberg, a Ph.D. student, and Dr. Mukul Mukherjee, an associate professor at UNO, focuses on the neuroscience of human movement.
Among other participants were: a radiologist and associate professor at UNMC, STEM educators at UNO, and a data center facility manager.
Pfeifer’s student leaders include juniors Keerthana Vinod, Vaibhavi Kota, Mrittika Mukherjee, and Aarushi Volvoicar.
“For the four of us on the leadership team to bring this from the ground up was difficult. A lot of it was done ourselves: outreach, publicizing, getting guest speakers, getting people to come,” Mukherjee said.
Despite the challenges, the juniors enjoyed the process.
“There was a lot of logistics that went into it, and that was definitely up my alley, planning and everything. It was really fun,” Mukherjee said.
The terms of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) are commonly thrown around to describe careers and subjects in each of these fields, but many don’t know how all four work together.
“You need one to do the other. None of them stand alone. You can’t do science without math, and math is nothing without science,” Pfeifer said.
Some people believe that men should go into STEM fields, not women. The club is trying to combat that idea and change how people perceive their capabilities.
“I think it’s the idea that people think that we’re women and aren’t smart enough, aren’t capable enough, or can’t handle the hard work. Of course, that’s a really outdated idea, like we can be just as good as men, if not better, in many of these aspects,” Mukherjee said.
There’s also the idea of the “glass ceiling”, about women in science and other lines of work. Defined by Oxford Languages, the “glass ceiling” is an unofficially acknowledged barrier to advancement in a profession, especially affecting women and minorities.
“There’s this phenomenon where once you get to higher level classes, the number of women just drops off. It’s like we’re allowed to do science in higher-level classes in high school, but then for some reason as soon as you get to college, it’s looked down upon. I’m not sure how to fix it, but we need to,” Pfeifer said.
Almost as if to prove these stereotypes wrong, the night had a phenomenal turnout. All the weeks of diligent planning paid off.
“This is actually so much better than I thought it would’ve been. There’s so many people here and it’s running so smoothly and it’s organized. I’m so happy that all four of us were able to stay conducted and organized and work with each other and collaborate with other people. It was just a really fun experience,” Kota said.