Karen Garcia |
STEM Outreach Activities and Resources Club (SOAR)
Growing up on the eastern shore village of Mangilao, Guam, senior electrical engineering major Fatima-Joyce Dominguez didn’t always envision herself pursuing a career in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) field.
“There’s not very many girls or ethnic diversity in STEM,” Dominguez said. “And it can be really difficult to stay involved in the STEM fields after being discouraged.”
Although Dominguez was able to discover her interest in math and science early on, the public high school she attended in Guam didn’t place a strong emphasis on STEM – a reality that she personally witnessed day-to-day.
“I once walked into one of the faculty telling a prospective AP calculus teacher, ‘Our students aren’t smart enough for AP calculus,’” Dominguez said. “I do not want any student to ever feel like they are limited. I do not want any student to ever have someone not believe in them.”
Driven by a desire to see more underrepresented students involved in STEM, Dominguez started the STEM Outreach Activities and Resources Club (SOAR), a service club focused on supporting and mentoring local middle and high schoolers.
“We have to recognize that we are a private university in an area where a majority of the local community isn’t as lucky as we are,” Dominguez said. “Roosevelt High School is one of the poorest high schools in Portland.
“And so what SOAR is going to be about is being there for teachers in the local community that can reach us and say, ‘Hey, I want to find mentors for my students, can you supply that?”
As president of SOAR, Dominguez and adviser Tamar More have become increasingly involved with Roosevelt High School and George Middle School as part of the initiative to expose kids to STEM early on.
“I think that kids can be intimidated by the STEM fields, and as a result do not see [them] as an option,” Dominguez said. “I’m not saying that the only way is the STEM way, but rather that the difficulty should not deter kids from seeing that it can be fun.”
Both Roosevelt High School and George Middle School have recently received STEM Lab grants to create laboratories, and Roosevelt has also started a robotics club. The schools are excited to use the resources, but are unsure how to do so in a way that will best benefit the students.
“The teachers ask us for advice for finding tools that they can give their students,” Dominguez said. “One thing they think would be good is if people like me can tell them, ‘I came from a public school—I came from Guam, and I thought I couldn’t get to where I am, but look at me now: I’m an engineer, and I’m talking to you.’”
The Campus Lions Club
Sophomore nursing major Valerie Smith may be new to her position as the president of UP’s first Lions Club, but she’s a veteran in the world of community service.
“Service runs in my blood,” Smith said.
Her grandfather was a member of the Lions Club’s international organization, and her mother was a member of Rotary International, another service organization.
A third-generation service devotee, Smith started her first community service club in high school and left the experience with an awareness of the skills needed to start and run a service club.
As president of the Campus Lions Club, Smith, advised by professor Aristides Petrides, Smith seeks to bring the Lions Club International motto of “We serve,” to campus.
“Our first project will be a recycling drive, followed by a food drive,” Smith said. “We’ll be placing boxes around campus, in order to hopefully collect used eyeglasses, hearing aids, and cell phones.”
The items collected will then be distributed to the Oregon Lions Sight and Hearing Foundation, and the food items collected will go toward supporting the Oregon Food Bank.
With open leadership positions and the first meeting of the year to be held on Feb. 5, the club is still in its beginning stages, but expects to find a foothold within the UP community, which already touts service and leadership as one of its main tenants.
As time progresses, the Lions Club hopes to create committees, allowing for students with a specific type of community service project in mind to propose their idea to the club and then see it flourish.
“We’re really open to creating a dialogue with other students in regard to what their interests are,” Smith said. “The main goal is to have as many students as possible involved with service and giving back.”
Karen Garcia is a reporter for The Beacon. She can be reached at garciaka17@up.edu.
