Women in STEM is a new club to FVHS, founded by juniors Alekhya Makineni and Rithmika Machery, which encourages women to go into the STEM field. Their interest meeting was Oct. 2, 2025 in room 2610. They will now hold meetings every first and third Tuesday of each month.
Secretary and junior, Jillian Walden said, “We thought that [FVHS] needed to have a club that really emphasized and promoted women in the STEM field which is predominantly dominated by men.” She wanted STEM to be made known to women so they don’t feel “like they are being overpowered” by men that are also in STEM jobs.
STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics and spans from biology to chemical engineering. Astronauts, meteorologists, chemists, web developers, mechanical engineers and staticians are jobs in the STEM field.
STEM involves problem solving, pattern recognition, critical and creative thinking, along with multidisciplinary applications.
Machery wants to be a forensic pathologist. She has had a love for STEM and enjoys doing experiments and problem solving.
“I love science, but I only see men in those fields. You never really hear about women scientists. You might hear of really old ones like Marie Curie, but you don’t hear of any women in the modern day.”
Historically, men tend to lead in the STEM field. Women only make up 28.2 percent of the STEM field in 2024 according to the Society of Women Engineers. Women in STEM works to lower the gender gap and encourage more girls to go into the STEM field.
“I honestly like how a lot of [STEM], believe it or not, is creative… I think it’s kind of included in regular STEM because you do have to have some sort of creativity to come up with ideas, and it’s its own art form,” said Walden.
Walden mentioned the art work called “Can’t Help Myself” where a robot was repeatedly sweeping oil to itself. That is art and STEM where technology created art.
Walden and Machery hope that more women go into the STEM field because of this club. They want girls to see how fun the field is and to break that glass ceiling.
Mackery said, “I just really want more girls to be interested in the sciences. We want them to go into more science careers.”
They hope to do labs that other science classes wouldn’t usually do, like dissections for girls that are interested in biology. The club also hopes to bring in guest speakers that will show how fun science can be. Mackery and Walden are excited to see girls become passionate for STEM.
