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WOMEN WHO STEP INTO STEM - 2/10/2026
WOMEN WHO STEP INTO STEM - 2/10/2026
Women in STEM are extremely important to the world. Some of the greatest inventions in the world were made by women, like the first dishwasher, coffee filters, frequency hopping, which is a precursor to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. STEM is science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. These fields are strongly male-dominated, but this needs to change. We need to work together to equalize the ratio between men and women. While traditionally it has been a male-dominated field in the past, women are equally suited for robotics and STEM-based jobs. Women deserve equal representation and opportunity in these fields.
In order to support women in STEM, Team Hazmat went to the TWIST tech challenge on June 21, 2025, at Mukwonago High School. This event centers around girls in First, to support women. During the competition, all drivers were girls, and our team’s female drivers had one practice session before they had to compete. From only being able to pick up one specimen to picking up 13 in only six rounds, the girls on team Hazmat performed well, showing how women can do anything when they set their minds to it. Beyond the win, the event offered a meaningful and empowering experience for the girls who participated.
The girls who had attended had an enriching journey, getting the chance to drive and compete. The judges did a great job of making sure the girls were engaged: one of our drivers said that the experience made her more engaged both on and off the field.
From this experience, our members noticed that very few teams participated. We would like to see more support in the coming years. We will always reinforce ladies in STEM, but we all need to bind together and help support girls who are in and/or interested in STEM. In order to help fix the errors in the opportunity for women in STEM, we all should support women and recode the general public's perspective on women in STEM. We can begin to fix the imbalance in STEM by actively supporting women and changing how society perceives their role in these fields. Help us build a world where women are the formula of STEM. Let’s stop short-circuiting opportunities—women belong in STEM just as much as men do.
WOMEN IN TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE @BOBA - 2/10/2026
WOMEN IN TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE @BOBA - 2/10/2026
Team 13201 Hazmat hosted our Battle of Brookfield Annual qualifier (BOBA) on February 7th, 2026. To show our commitment to gender equality in STEAM, we invited our guest speaker, Dr. Zhu Li, the Chief of Technology in Magnetic Resonance Imaging in GE HealthCare, who shared personal reflections on being one of the only - and often youngest - women in the room, and we also hosted a Women In Technology and Science career fair (WITS).
During the opening ceremony, Dr. Zhu Li reflected on her experience. She told us that she, too, at times, felt like she didn’t belong, yet emphasized that those feelings should never limit what we believe that we can achieve. She shared how it is important to foster curiosity, especially in young minds such as ours. Her message encouraged all of us to pursue our goals with confidence, nurture our curiosity, and continue to explore whatever inspires us.
We also held a Women In Technology and Science (WITS) Career Fair. There, we invited companies with women with jobs in the STEM field to set up tables, and eight eventually came. We planned the event layout in advance and also created a fun activity where students earned stickers by asking questions at each company table to win free boba. After the career fair, we held a panel discussion where I asked the women questions about their careers and invited students to ask their own questions. Everyone from the different companies brought in really cool demos; for example, GE HealthCare had a robotic dog that could wave, which helped make people more interested in the fair. After this, we also held a WITS Career panel discussion, where we asked them questions about their careers, what they did in high school to prepare, and other useful tips. We then had some allotted time for other students to ask questions as well. Our career fair was extremely successful because it gave everyone at our school a chance to interact with women working in different STEM and tech fields and learn about their professional experiences. Even though initially it was mainly to get girls interested in STEM, it turned out to be a way to get many people start thinking about future careers in the STEM field.
We showed our support for gender equality through our guest speaker and our career fair. The career fair opened the eyes of many people, even in the FLL teams. It showed girls that they, too, could be in a STEM field/ profession, and showed older students how they could plan their high school careers to help them be better prepared for their future. We learnt alot from both of these events, and we also hope that the people who attended these events learnt something new as well.
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