Girls InTech G

irls in Tech is a club started by Johnston High School girls to support girls from all backgrounds who want to come together to be involved in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and help the Johnston community. They meet every Tuesday in room number 220 (Ms. Nsereko’s classroom), where they discuss ideas and work on their projects in a safe and comfortable environment.

“As of now, we’re gonna work with the Blank Children’s hospital, and we’re gonna go there and visit them and we’re gonna build robots,” Adonawit Meshesha ‘25 explained. “We have a bunch of creative ideas coming and you just have to wait and see.”

Because Girls in Tech strives to focus on the girls at Johnston specifically, providing them with support needed to pursue their interests in the STEM field, they sometimes struggle with informing girls about the club and getting them to join.

“Some girls are afraid that it’s gonna be too hard or too challenging, but that’s the whole purpose of our mission,” said Meshesha.

While Girls in Tech is not the only club at Johnston that centers around STEM and technology, it is the only one that is exclusively for girls. Not only is the club an opportunity for learning and gaining experience, it is also a place for girls to find friends and peers with similar interests and aspirations.

“There’s many scholarship activities offered for people that get into the STEM career path, and this is a good way to get into that,” Meshesha added. “We also have a bunch of fun outreaches, so it’s a fun environment and you get to become one big STEM family.”

Another club that often goes unnoticed is the FTC (FIRST Tech Challenge) Robotics club, sponsored by Mr. Martinsen. Like many others of these “forgotten” clubs, the Robotics club primarily struggles with low attendance and underfunding, but that doesn’t stop them from meeting at least twice a week in room 326 (the Special Skills Lab).

The purpose of the club is to provide support for students in a yearly competitive league all the way up to a worldwide tournament robotics program. Members of the club are able to design, build and program robots that run autonomously and through driver control to compete in the events.

Normally, their meetings include a stand up meeting to “address where the team is with goals and action items, address upcoming events, and then work in smaller groups to design, build, program, test and drive the robot,” Mr. Martinsen explained. They also coordinate outreach to share the program with others and connect with local experts in related fields.

“Students get to work together to learn about robotics, math, engineering, technology, science and programming,” Martinsen said. “[They] meet other students across the DSM metro and up to state or world level depending on our team’s performance.”