Akemi Roberts is a fifteen-year-old sophomore at Glendale High School, and she was born in Glendale, California. Akemi enjoys playing Sudoku and reading manga in her free time. Though she doesn’t have many hobbies, she stays busy as the founder and president of the GHS STEMinists Club.
The idea for this club struck Akemi while walking home from a marching band competition. While talking with her friend, she realized that most STEM-related classes and clubs on campus lacked female representation.
“In every STEM club I’m in, it is usually male-dominated,” Akemi said. “We thought it would be a good idea to bring all the women in school who are interested in STEM together to increase the population.”
The primary goal of the STEMinists Club is to guide and support women who might feel discouraged from pursuing math and science, because they are often the minority in those fields. Akemi hopes to help her peers feel empowered to enter the industry.
During meetings, Akemi introduces members to unique opportunities, such as a recent engineering activity at UCLA. The group discusses STEM concepts and shares their personal experiences within the field.
Akemi and her cabinet have found it challenging to recruit new members, due to the stigmas surrounding math and science. “It’s kind of a mildly-oppressed community, and so it might be hard to get jobs in the future,” Akemi admitted.
Despite the challenges, Akemi loves being a club president. For her, the best part of being in this role is having the platform to help others and provide them with a solid starting point for their careers. Not to mention, her mother is an engineer as well.
After high school, Akemi is also looking toward attending California Institute of Technology. to study astrophysics or aerospace engineering, although she would also be happy to attend UCLA or UC Berkeley. If you are interested in joining the STEMinists Club, please contact Ms. Thompson at [email protected], or follow them on Instagram: @ghs.steminists
Keep on learning, Nitros!
