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I remember sitting in my 9th grade computer science classroom, wondering why I was one of only two girls present. Unfortunately, it's always been like this. Women have been making monumental contributions to science and technology throughout history, yet do not gain the approval of society or their peers. And despite society's immense progression, research shows that women are underrepresented in STEM fields, especially computer science and engineering.
Each year, more women drop out of STEM related careers than men, increasing the gender gap. Is this because of an innate inability of the woman to perform as well as her male colleagues? No. This starts young, when toys involving construction, engineering, and science are geared toward boys, while girls are labeled "tomboyish" when seen playing with such things. This attitude worsens in school, where the few girls in a high-level science or engineering class may feel out of place or unrecognized. If a female does decide to pursue a STEM career, the discrimination only continues into college and the workplace. According to one study, 72.4% of survey respondents working at various scientific research field sites reported that they had seen or heard about inappropriate or sexual remarks being made in their place of work. Women respondents were 3.5 times more likely to have experienced sexual harassment than men. Clearly a problem. But we need to understand that this issue is much deeper than STEM - it's about society's definitions of masculine and feminine, and how it creates an unconscious bias in everyone. So how do we combat this? First of all, to encourage the girls in your life to pursue their real passions, you must destroy your own unconscious bias. Don’t contribute to the pseudo-empowerment of women by sugarcoating STEM and assuming that girls will only be drawn to robots covered in bows and glitter. I remember an FTC competition where my fellow female team member and I were looking at another team’s outreach poster, when a parent from that team walked up to us and said, “You know why you girls like that poster? It’s because it was made by girls”. Though this comment may have been well-intentioned, we felt his tone clearly implied that females are better at non-technical aspects of FTC, and that girls, no matter what their personality is, will be drawn to traditionally feminine tasks. We need to stop labeling girls as another “class” of people and instead focus on their individual talents. In our push for equality, are we putting too much emphasis on gender? Labels only divide people further. Right now, the effort for equal representation of the sexes in STEM fields is led by women, which seems logical. But we need all people, all humans in general, to push for equality. We need every kind of person to welcome every other kind of person into STEM, and we need men and women alike to advocate for the end of sexual harassment in the workplace. We need to awaken people and make them aware of their bias. With awareness comes action, and with action comes change. This needs to happen, and it needs to happen fast, otherwise we may just be stifling the next Marie Curie or Ada Lovelace. If you are interested in blogging for FIRST Ladies, click here to sign up on the schedule.
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 By the end of the year, there’s a lot of stuff to reflect about and ponder over. That means it’s a great time to think about how you want to better yourself in the coming year. With New Year’s right around the corner, the holidays are a perfect time to stock up on all the stuff you need to make those self-improvement dreams a reality. Here’s how to tailor your wish list to make it happen. If you want to learn a new skill Very few things are better for our minds and souls than learning. Mastering a new skill lets us continue our education well into adulthood. You’re never too old to learn a new trick - you’re not a dog. Think about this when prepping this year’s wish list. You should add music to your wish list this year - specifically a new instrument as well as some lessons to help you become proficient. You can go ambitious and try to learn a less-popular instrument like a viola or saxophone, or you can start out with the guitar or keyboards. The benefit of the latter is that they are good musical theory instruments that can be both awesome on their own, but also kickstart you toward other musical adventures. Plus, some of the best online guitar lessons are merely $20 or so a month. If you want to eat healthier A common self-improvement goal is to eat better. But can you really wish list yourself to a good diet? Well, yes and no. Starting and more importantly maintaining a healthy diet is hard work. It takes dedication and sacrifice. But you can help yourself with a handful of products and services. One option for your wish list? How about a food delivery service like Blue Apron. If you struggle to find the energy to go to the grocery, find a recipe, and cook, take two of those steps out of the equation and have quality meals delivered to your door, ready to cook. Next, think about these three kitchen gadgets:
If you want to relieve some stress You can’t begin a self-improvement journey if you’re burdened by stress. This holiday season, wish for something that can help you shed a year’s worth of anxiety. One good idea for your list is to create a vacation fund. You can use a crowdsourcing website like GoFundMe for this. Once you’ve created a campaign, you can easily share it with your friends and family, who can then contribute a lot or a little to your vacation fund. It’s hard to think of something better for stress than a free vacation. For something a little more traditional, think relaxation in the immediate term. You can ask for something like a pillow massager for neck stress or an oil diffuser for some aromatherapy. Check here for some more stress relief gift ideas. By creating a holiday wish list that’s tailored to how you see yourself improving over the course of the next year, you can avoid the pitfalls of poor gifting - another sweater from grandma or another Starbucks gift card from your brother. Be specific, and focus on what you need to succeed. Photo Credit: Pixabay.com This blog was written by Julie Morris. If you are interested in blogging for FIRST Ladies, click here to sign up on the schedule. With all of the tips for brand new robotics teams, it’s important to keep in mind the growth that occurs between rookie seasons and veteran seasons, and in the seasons following. Growth, competitively and in other arenas, never stops! So here are some tips for veteran teams!
This blog was written by anonymous. If you are interested in blogging for FIRST Ladies, click here to sign up on the schedule. 1) Don’t save things for last minute.
As a pro-procrastinator, this was one hard lesson for me to learn. I was someone who took “join everything” to heart, and that’s kinda what I did… or tried to do. I was also an ambitious student, so I signed up for those AP classes with heavy homework load. I stretched myself really thin my freshman and sophomore year, and if there’s anything I learned- it would be to get things done ASAP. Especially with so much going on, it’s so easy to let things slide to “tomorrow”, but after a few “tomorrows”, the to-do list piles up very quickly. It gets super duper scary when there’s so much to do and so little time to do it. I’ve always just sacrificed sleep to try to make time for it all, but that’s definitely not the way to go. As a programmer on my robotics team who has had to stay up till 3:00 or later the night before the tournament to get autonomous working, I’ve learned that there’s just not enough “tomorrows". I know it’s wayyyyyyy easier to just rationalize with yourself and procrastinate, but trust me, you will thank yourself later when you aren’t scrambling at 3:00 in the morning. My APUSH teacher told our class “if you don’t do your homework, you’re one step away from the college of your dreams”. 2) Don’t be afraid to experiment. High school is forgiving. Hear me out on this, despite how the movies make it, high school is not the end-all-be-all by any means. It’s just four short years of your life in the scheme of like 80 years. I know that drama can hurt, and high school students can be mean, but high school is 1000000000X more forgiving than the real world. It’s better to experiment and try new things in high school than when you’re out in the real world. For example, if you wanted to dye your hair, but you weren’t sure how it would go, or if the color would even look good on you, try it in high school. Every new school year is basically a fresh start and everything in the past years have been washed away with summer break. Try experimenting with different clubs and activities- you’ll never know what you’ll find till you try. Try experimenting with different social situations- maybe try making small talk with an upperclassman. Whatever you want to try, now is the time. 3) Be kind to everyone you meet. Do yourself a favor and please please please be nice to everyone. Unless you know their whole life story, please be careful to judge. I know it’s human nature to judge, but please be careful about voicing these judgments. Everyone is fighting a different battle. Everyone is so different, with different personalities, values, and experiences, that it’s hard for everyone to see eye to eye on everything. Just understand that different people have different ways of handing situations, so acceptance or friendly debate is better than harsh judgment. It’s super cliché, but it’s so true when people say even a smile can brighten someone's day. The least you could do is at least smile and say hi to someone in the halls. A wise person once told me “life is fair because it’s unfair to everyone.” 4) Your passion is all that matters. In the long run, trying to juggle like 8 different activities and sacrificing time and sleep for it is just not worth it. There should only be one or two activities that matter. And those are the ones that get you into your college program. There’s a huge myth about being the “well rounded” student, so a lot of people at my high school think they need to be in a ton of clubs. One of my friends who ended up getting accepted to Yale (yes, that Yale) told me the opposite. She only did one activity her high school career, and she got accepted into Yale. She said that you only need to fully commit to one activity that makes you feel passionate, than to commit to so many that waste your time. Think about it, in the long run, will all these extra clubs help you, or are they wasting your time that could be spent on that most important one? You only really need one or two degrees to find a job, and the farther you go in college, you’re mostly focusing on those core classes that is your major, so why waste all this time now on those extra clubs? If they’re fun, and is an escape from the hard classes and hard stress of life, then by all means you can keep it, but trying to balance having eight or nine different clubs is creating tedious work for yourself. In the long run, the only thing that matters is your passion. 5)Enjoy it while it lasts. High school is very short, and that’s very bittersweet. The four years, though at points seem never ending, flies by. In a blink of an eye, you’re tossing your graduation cap into the air and kissing high school goodbye. I’m sure you’ve at least once in your life heard adults say “I wish I was back in high school” or “High school was so much fun”, so instead of being one of those adults who regret not enjoying high school…. Enjoy it while it lasts! There will definitely be ups and downs, but a day passes whether you’re sad or happy, so why not be happy and enjoy it? This blog was written by anonymous. If you are interested in blogging for FIRST Ladies, click here to sign up on the schedule. |
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