The Sage Publication is the student news site of Sage Creek High School in Carlsbad, CA

The Sage

The Sage Publication is the student news site of Sage Creek High School in Carlsbad, CA

The Sage

The Sage Publication is the student news site of Sage Creek High School in Carlsbad, CA

The Sage

Some Clubs of Sage Creek

“We bring in guest speakers quite often,” said Maddie Connelly, president of Girls in STEAM. “We’ve had people from Viasat, a radiologist, a professor at SDSU.”

The interview took place outside her EDD class. A class mostly populated by men. According to the National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP) and NSF, Science & Engineering Indicators, 2018 (NSF, S&E), men occupy 72 percent of the science and engineering workforce despite the overall college-educated workforce seeing a fifty-fifty split.

For the high school girls in STEAM, these statistics may seem daunting, which is why Connelly founded the club during the 2018-2019 school year.

“There’s underrepresentation of females across the board once you get into careers,” Connelly said, “and also right now, when you’re in these PLTW classes, and so I really wanted to create a support system for girls like me.”

Photo by Eric Plotkin
Maddie Connelly, president of Girls in STEAM, is pictured above. She founded the club last year.

Club meetings consist of team bonding, planning for events like the Women’s March, and listening to guest speakers.

When asked about the club’s impact on her life, club member Claire Perhach cited the guest speakers: “It is great to see all of these different aspects of…the day-to-day life of all of these different directions that we as high schoolers moving into college can go in.”

However, the large gap in the science and engineering fields is mostly evident beyond high school as “female students participate in high-level mathematics and science courses at similar rates as their male peers” (NGCP and NSF, S&E). Girls in STEAM, who want to continue working in STEAM, are concerned over their future career paths, a worry that these speakers have helped combat.
Sarah Miller, another member of Girls in STEAM, said, “It’s made me excited about my careers in the future in STEM and in STEAM.”

Connelly has begun using the inspiration modeled by the guest speakers to move Girls in STEAM beyond the classroom. “This year we’re thinking about doing more outreach to elementary schools to kinda build the other end of a role-model relationship where we’re the role models.”
Club meetings are held every other Thursday in room 1300. (“Anyone can join as long as you’re a supportive and inclusive member who is interested in uplifting other girls in STEAM,” Connelly said.)
“I’m friends with these girls,” Miller said, “and it’s special to have the same interests and be able to sit down every other week and talk about it.”

View Comments (8)

Comments (8)

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  • J

    JohnNov 22, 2019 at 7:51 pm

    Darius, thanks for putting that into perspective for me.

    Reply
  • D

    Darius RahmanianNov 19, 2019 at 10:02 pm

    John, as someone who is in a Computer Science major along with friends at university reporting the same for mechanical and electrical engineering, imma be real with you chieftain, Its a sausage fest. There are three girls in my computer science class, five in calculus, and six in physics. Luckily for EVERYONE, engineering and computer science fields have extremely low yield rates from universities so you are almost guaranteed a job no matter the gender. However, these girls know their playing field and know that engineering and software development firms absolutely eat them up. I took engineering all four years at Sage Creek, 99% men the entire time, ViaSat never offered ONCE for our entire engineering class to come and take a tour, only the girls, which count em, there were three.

    So be smart John, be smart like these girls, and know your playing field.

    Reply
  • A

    AndrewNov 18, 2019 at 9:33 pm

    You should do an article about the impeachment hearings. I think it would make for a good debate in the comments. Or do an article with two different viewpoints like the Brett Kavanaugh articles last year. And yes, Ninjago Shrek Club is very cool.

    Reply
  • J

    JohnNov 18, 2019 at 9:25 pm

    Girls actually are already leading in STEM fields so I dont know why you need a club aimed specifically aimed at girls in stem when women will continue to dominate stem.

    Reply
  • D

    Darrius RahmanianNov 17, 2019 at 9:05 pm

    > article topic:girls in stem
    >comments : Ninjago Shrek
    Sage Creek, never change.

    Reply
  • T

    TomNov 15, 2019 at 1:45 pm

    well, I used to watch Ninjago, so better a Ninjago Shrek Club than a ‘My Little Pony’ club. I never was a Brony and I never will be.

    Reply
  • T

    TomNov 15, 2019 at 1:42 pm

    Let me guess: there’s actually a subculture of Ninjabros now? And they’ve joined with the Brogres?

    Reply
  • K

    Koa TejeroNov 14, 2019 at 11:13 am

    Ninjago Shrek Club is so cool

    Reply