Emily Rose
Story
Before I wrote my first line of code, I didn’t think I would enjoy it. I had always had the impression that it would be very difficult to code and extremely boring. One summer while I was in elementary school, my parents signed me up for a summer camp to learn to code JavaScript. I remember going to the camp and looking at the kids around me coding away, but I had absolutely no idea where to start. Soon after, one of the camp counselors noticed me and came over to help. I started with coding a circle and I was thrilled. Soon I learned how to change its color. By the end of that week, I had coded a fully functioning game!
My passion for STEM did not stop at coding though. In elementary school, I decided to participate in the monthly design challenges at my school. For one of the challenges, I built a catapult out of popsicle sticks, glue, and a rubber band. When I launched the first object from my catapult, I was ecstatic and so proud of what I had built! Although I didn’t know it at the time, this was my first glimpse into engineering and would lead me to choose my future path for university.
As I moved on to high school, I started noticing a lack of female representation. Each year, the number of girls in my STEM classes decreased more and more. This year, I took a computer engineering class with about 30 students and I was only one of 3 girls. Recognizing this has motivated me to continuously challenge myself to explore the STEM fields as well as find ways to inspire other girls and make STEM welcoming to everyone.
When I came across StemChef, I was immediately intrigued. It reminded me of one of my favourite projects that I had done in high school, where we were given the task of cooking a dish and then having to explain the scientific chemical and physical changes taking place. StemChef is a platform where your gender or race or location or prior skills don’t matter, as long as you have a passion for science and food, you can succeed! I am grateful to be working on a team looking to empower the future generation of scientists, engineers, chefs, mathematicians, and more!