Women in STEAM is making full use of their first year as a recognized club to bring in speakers throughout the school year who can help to inspire students to think about the career paths available to them.

“[W]e have been identifying all female career speakers who work in a STEAM related field just to show the members of this club and other students who attend those presentations. That is, you know, there are women in the science field and there are the people who have gone before them and there are role models that they can look up to,” McKenna Serowka, Science and Engineering Division Head and Women in STEAM sponsor, said.

The club’s most recent event was held on Monday, December 13. Approximately 10 students attended the lecture by Dr. Janine Bobko and Dr. Jeff Gelband, who both work in integrative and alternative medicine and spoke about many parts of their careers. 

“It’s really interesting to just hear the day to day basis of a job,” Emily Kaminsky, senior and Women in STEAM member, said. “Just hearing from someone who does this every day and how they talk about what path they took to get there helps us not only know more about the career, but if we’re interested, in what we need to do to get there.”

Dr. Bobko and Dr. Gelband shared much information about popular treatment types in their field, as well as they talked about the most sensible paths to take for a career in alternative medicine, as well as the misconceptions of alternative medicine, such as what it can treat and how.

Inspiring students isn’t where the goals of these lectures stop, however. The fact that most of these speakers are women is significant as well, since the comfort of women in male-dominated fields is a priority in the Women in STEAM club, Kaminsky said.

“Just having a space where women can explore different STEAM fields, even if they haven’t heard of them before,” Kaminsky said. “Maybe I’m not definitely going to be part of these fields, but at least I feel more comfortable in them and I feel more knowledgeable about, you know, what’s available to me.”

There is another lecture on January 25, where a robotic surgeon who works on the Da Vinci robot will be coming to the school to discuss her everyday job and the path she took to get where she is today.

“I think one thing that you learn from these presentations that you wouldn’t expect is by drawing and a lot of other aspects, not just their career,” Kaminsky said. “So even if you’re not specifically interested in that career, you can learn more about the field and possibly be interested in one of those other careers.”

Though these lectures are molded to the interest of those interested in careers in STEAM, they are open to anyone who wants to listen, even those who might just want to learn more.

“These lectures can be super useful to anyone at our school, even those who aren’t in either clubs, “ Kiera Fridner, senior and Medical Science club member, said. “These lectures are super inspiring and insightful and really offer an inside view to different careers or processes in the medical field to anyone interested.”