Redefining POWER

The gender gap in STEM is not just prominent in high school and careers, but also in universities.

Branham alumnus Xiaomian Yang is a junior at Stanford studying material science engineering and minoring in computer science. She leads en engineering bridge program called Pre-College Opportunities within Energy Research, POWER, which hosts monthly after-school workshops with the Stanford Energy Club.

POWER’s main goals are to spread awareness on energy research and empower underrepresented high school students in pursuing future careers in energy through hands-on activities and learning.

Yang has brought POWER workshops to Branham regularly this school year, focusing on a variety of topics ranging from hydrogen to the greenhouse gas effect.

Yang said that although STEM may not interest everyone, it is important for these opportunities to be widely available in high school, where she was involved in Project Lead the Way as well as SPARE Club.

“Having a really great STEM program was extremely fruitful for me because I got to work with a lot of other things many high school students wouldn't have been able to touch upon,” she said. “And for people who are not interested in science, it's still good to learn a little bit about how the world works around them.”

For Yang, majoring and pursuing a career in STEM was an easy decision — she cites the thrill of working through problems and finding answers in physics and math

Though she didn’t notice sexism in engineering as a high school student, she said it’s more pronounced in college.

“I see a lot of times when women scientists are not as respected,” she said. “You see a lot more issues revolving around gender, and I don't know if that's a good thing.”

After initially feeling discouraged from pursuing a Ph.D. due to the lack of female support and exposure, she said that working with a group of “smart female scientists driven to do their work” in her research lab changed her mind.

“It was my first exposure to understanding that I can be one of them in the future,” she said.“It doesn't matter who I am or what background I come from–as long as I enjoy doing what I like, I can be just as intelligent, and I wish that my high school self would have known that.” since freshman year, and she has applied to colleges that have aerospace engineering and art majors, another passion of hers. People who are engineers can pursue their other passions, she said.

POWER will be returning to Branham with their first workshop of the year on Mar. 30 from 3:15 to 5:15 p.m. in J201. The workshop will be focused on heat radiation and how it is harvested to innovate materials for saving energy and fighting climate change.

“You don't need to limit yourself to engineering or avoid it either,” she said.

“Engineering can also be for people like me who really like art at the same time, so you can figure out ways to combine it with other things that you like.”

The engineering student wants to increase recruitment efforts to bring women to STEM,

The

Bruins president says that she often faces requests to prove her expertise in robotics.