Many minority groups are misrepresented within STEM. I’ve taken examples of stories of women through their journeys to a STEM job and overcoming the stereotype of what an engineer should look like. Underneath, are two stories – Samantha John and Sasha Ariel Aston.
Samantha John studied engineering in college and developed her passion in Columbia University. She went on to co-find a learn-to-code app called Hopscotch. It was the first programming tool for kids designed for touch-screen devices. John recognized that in most STEM careers women are seen as beginners and as women in STEM she has gotten used to being the minority in big companies/conferences. John developed the game as she wanted it to combat the huge gender gap for girls in programming, which worked as children have used the app to design 26 million games.
Sasha Ariel Aston studied technology at her high school and ended being an intern for Microsoft where she designed her first gaming app. throughout her experience, she noticed there weren’t many women in her STEM-related classes and clubs, particularly not many women of colour. Aston wanted girls to feel like they can enter any career they want no matter their gender or race. If STEM was promoted at an earlier age and girls were constantly giving support at A-levels, diversity in STEM would not be so much of an issue.
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