When we think of “STEM,” the first thing that comes to mind may be the stem of a plant. However, the new STEM club at Bellaire is in fact here to highlight the importance of women’s roles in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Michelle Tang, the president and founder of the STEM club, explained what STEM meant.

Tang, a junior states, “Everything is math and science; most everything you use incorporates STEM in some way or another like the products we use daily.”

STEM jobs come with a wide range of opportunities. The club, founded this year, wanted to introduce these subjects mainly to female students and have already had three guest speakers come to the meetings.

Upon walking into their meeting, the guest speakers were introduced as having graduated from Bellaire. Diane Wu, Shalin Pei and Mayan Lee, leading women in STEM, took questions from club members. All of the guest speakers talked about majors and current jobs. Wu currently teaches at T.H Rogers and Shalin Pei works for the powerful social network company, Facebook. Many took different college classes but eventually discovered what they really wanted to do later in life.

Many members asked questions about entering the field of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Most of the graduates expressed their love for the subject and how it helped them in different ways.

Tang wants to use the club to “motivate female students to pursue these jobs because there is a huge disparity since STEM is usually a male dominant field.”

Often women may be overshadowed by boys, but that’s what Tang wants to get eliminated. The club aspires to make sure that girls can pursue anything as long as they are out there with their brains and hearts into their studies, even if it was a male dominant area.

Tang is already planning a trip to visit engineering facilities at Rice. There, club members could be shown what kind of work they could be doing if they chose to major in a STEM field at university. For this club, STEM symbolizes girls being proactive and following their dreams regardless of prejudice or obstacles. So, what does STEM mean to you?