Biomedigirls: Closing the Gender Gap in STEM Research
This past April, seniors Amy Huang and Melissa Qin, along with senior Abbie Maemoto from Palos Verdes High School (PVHS), created Biomedigirls. Biomedigirls is a nonprofit organization that strives to provide opportunities for girls who are interested in biomedical research. The three were inspired to create this group by the sexism they witnessed as women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) programs.
Although these limitations frustrated Maemoto, she chose to move forward and use these gender setbacks as motivation to create a community of women through Biomedigirls. Over the course of the summer, the organization put forth an array of opportunities for their members, such as a six-week virtual course. Every Friday, student participants presented on various biomedical topics, such as research progress on cancer and diabetes. Additionally, Biomedigirls brought in professors from schools such as Brown University and Yale University to lecture the participants throughout the class. Becoming engaged with peers who shared mutual interests allowed both participants and Biomedigirls leadership to foster meaningful connections with new friends as well as teacher volunteers.
“We have realized that women in STEM are usually discouraged to pursue medical professions and biomedical engineering,” Huang said. “We are catering [Biomedigirls] not only to young students, but [especially] to females. Biomedigirls fosters interest in biomedical research, so [that] participants will become the new generation of female researchers.”
To further encourage those who may not have equal educational opportunities due to financial implications, the group provides academic scholarships for students who are passionate about the biomedical field. They hope to support participants in exploring their scholarly strengths and encourage students to reach for their goals by engaging in new lessons about biomedical research without having to worry about financial obstacles.
“[One event] that inspired me to form Biomedigirls was when I personally had to circumnavigate socioeconomic barriers to discover my passion for biomedical research,” Maemoto said. “That is why I started a platform that provides free, open-access resources for all students, especially females and underrepresented minorities.”
Biomedigirls’ other mission consists of expanding its influence beyond the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District. To increase their audience, Maemoto, Huang and Qin promote their organization through social media and created an Instagram page, @biomedigirls. This account has helped them attract students on an international scale and increase the diversity of their participants, reaching countries such as Canada and India.
Even though Biomedigirls already possesses a large audience worldwide, Qin is constantly contributing new ideas into the organization. She is continuously looking for ways to get her peers involved, hoping to share Biomedigirls’ values of enthusiasm and commitment with other girls in STEM, while encouraging a more diverse demographic of researchers in the biomedical field.
“Passion would be the word that describes our organization,” Qin said. “We have a passion for Biomedigirls because it offers a chance that would allow females to contribute more into this community that hardly represented [them] before.”
