Jie Wang and Nithya Achanta, two high school seniors in Memphis, saw that there were very few STEM opportunities for middle and high school girls in the South. So, in 2017, they founded STEM4fem, a nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging middle and high school females to get into STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math).
The two realized their passions for STEM while collaborating on projects together at White Station Middle School. “Before that, neither of us were really interested in going into STEM-related fields,” says Achanta. “But through those projects, we realized we could have a great impact on the community because a lot of our projects involve trying to come up with solutions to problems in our community.”
The idea of STEM4fem originally came to them during a competition in Washington, D.C., in eighth grade. “We met this girl named Pooja, who started a similar organization to this that we participated in,” says Achanta. “She brought together girls from all over the country to work on supercomputer science projects. And we hoped to do the same with our own program.”
It was after their ninth grade year when Wang and Achanta realized they needed to bring their idea of STEM4fem into fruition. While they were out of town for another competition, they realized that there was a huge gender gap between men and women.
“Another thing we realized,” says Achanta, “is when we met students from California, they were exposed to a lot more STEM opportunities earlier on than we saw in the South and in Memphis. So we really wanted to address those issues.”
We realized we could have a great impact because a lot of our projects involve trying to come up with solutions to problems in our community.
Thus, shortly thereafter, STEM4fem was born. Through the STEM4fem platform, Wang and Achanta are able to connect girls in the community to STEM with workshops and competitions. STEM4fem holds workshops with other organizations like Girls Inc., Bridge Builders, and Greater Memphis Chinese School, helping girls work on mini STEM projects and bringing in guest speakers from the community, like professors and graduate and undergrad students from local universities, to talk about their experiences, answer any questions, and help with projects.
“Through these workshops, we’ve reached over 200 girls in the past two years,” says Wang. “And that has made them a lot more interested, in the same way that we have, because of its impact on the community.”
STEM4fem hosts annual competitions for girls in the community. Girls are asked to register online as coders (apps and programs), engineers (robots or devices), or researchers (experiments), select a problem or issue, find a solution to it, and present their findings at a live competition. This year, five teams presented their projects at Benjamin L. Hooks library to a panel of five judges.
“It went great,” says Achanta. “A group of six girls won the competition with their marine biotechnology device that helped with pollution in the oceans.”
Achanta and Wang’s long-term vision is to reach thousands of girls around the country, but for now, they’re setting yearly goals. “In the upcoming year, we hope to reach 500 girls,” says Wang. “We want to do that through providing more opportunities for high schoolers to obtain leadership positions in our organizations and hold their own workshops. Hopefully they could help spread the word and reach more girls.”
According to Achanta and Wang, the need for STEM professionals is becoming more important than ever before. “We live in an increasingly technology-dependent world, so STEM is a field that has many job opportunities,” says Achanta. “Diversity is also extremely important because it provides different perspectives on how to solve STEM issues.”
To help Achanta and Wang carry along their mission, they’re always looking for sponsors, partners, mentors, and judges. For more information about the organization and how to help out, visit their website at stem4fem.com.
Julia Baker, a second-generation journalist, is a staff writer for Memphis Parent magazine and a University of Memphis junior.