Project Reflection - Shattering The Glass Ceiling:Women in STEM

Shattering The Glass Ceiling:Women in STEM

Shattering the Glass Ceiling: Promoting STEM Careers for Women

Reflection

   At the start of the 2020-2021 school year our high school (Patchogue-Medford) was on a hybrid class schedule model. On top of students only being live on campus for 2 days a week every Wednesday all students were completely remote. Nobody would have suspected that we would compete in something as massive as the Girls Build Competition promoting careers in the STEM Field for women. As the school year progressed and reopening continued we entered this campaign.
   Students were excited to be a part of this team during a time where the world needed to focus on something other than COVID. Right away there were 8 solid students which wanted to be a part of this competition. With a strong knowledge and grasp of social media development and technology savviness the team hit the ground running in developing this campaign.
As a result, the team would have liked to have taken field trips, held in person discussions among groups other than our high school students, in person gatherings and engagement. In a non-pandemic year the campaign would have easily extended to the community, beyond long island and elsewhere. Also, the length of the campaign was short with a late Winter entry ending in early Spring.
Many things did work in our favor during this campaign. First and foremost was the connection and development of new friendships among team members. Students were now connecting between grade levels and with new people. Connections were growing that will outlast this competition. Next, several students have already mentioned that they are interested in possibly pursuing a career in the STEM field instead of the direction (or no direction) that previously existed.
Overall, the campaign was a success. There is always room to grow but for now the girls in Shattering the Glass Ceiling have started planting the seeds for a bright new future in the Patchogue-Medford community.