Teen Times Feature: Why Stem
- EmpowerU
- Sep 28, 2019
- 4 min read
Updated: Sep 29, 2019
By Harsha Parchani
Post from Teen Times SXM
St. Maartener Harsha Parchani recently accepted a position with Microsoft as an engineer. Harsha’s career choice was driven by her love for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math). We thought a little more attention on STEM, expecially for girls, is something that would not only make a good read, but could inspire and increase representation in the fields of STEM from St. Maarten.
A lot of people say there is a shortage of representation in STEM, but what exactly does that mean? Why should minorities be in STEM? What does a career in STEM look like?
STEM stands for careers tied to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. STEM is often viewed as out of reach for many minorities due to the intense level of mathematics involved; however, I am here to tell you that YOU, yes you, can have a successful career in STEM. The reason being, if I can do it, so can you.
Well who am I? My name is Harsha Parchani; I grew up on Sint Maarten much like you and I recently accepted a full-time offer to work for the company leading the technological sector, Microsoft. That makes me the first person from Sint Maarten to ever work at Microsoft. I am an engineer, an Electrical Engineer to be exact; however, STEM careers encompass much more than engineers. People of STEM include doctors, scientists and researchers, science and math teachers, urban planners, gamers, user experience designers, and more. Want a career developing virtual reality apps? Want to work on the 747s aircrafts that land on our beautiful island? Want to find the cure for cancer? Want to build robots or autonomous vehicles? Want to be an excellent music producer? Chances are you are looking at a career in STEM. In this article, I will focus on engineering as that is my background; however, if this article really speaks to you, reach out to Teen Times and I can go more into depth into the other parts of STEM.
Why does STEM need you? Women make up 36% of STEM jobs, with African Americans/Blacks at 6% and Hispanics at 7%1. WE develop the technology of the future. If you can think it, you can create it. The technology of the future needs a group of diverse minds to create it; without this, technology that impact and influence our lives will be developed from a small perspective and will not be representative of the worlds needs. Large companies do not know about the unique problems we face in the Caribbean or as minorities because there is a lack of representation to articulate these issues. Your unique perspective has a lot to add to technology of the future. For example, imagine what the power of virtual reality could do for the Caribbean. Imagine if we had the experts to advise governments on the usage of alternative energy sources with data to back it up, how would that change our energy usage? Imagine you were the sound engineer mixing beats for rap legends. Imagine building the next tech start-up. Imagine you were the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. You can build that technology. You could be that expert.
STEM is not limited to just boys. As a girl, I can understand how intimidating it can be to have a class where you are the only girl. That did not mean I did not deserve to be there; in fact, it meant I needed to be there more. In all honesty, I struggled with math when I moved to college in the US; I had to drop Calculus 1 simply because I did not have the fundamental knowledge required to succeed my freshman year. That did not stop me; I learnt what I was missing and did amazing job the following semester. Electrical Engineering is one of the harder engineering majors; however, I found the usage of sensors and optics fascinating. Everything we use today utilizes some form of Electrical Engineering ingenuity, and I was inspired to build the tech of the future.
There are many different types of engineering majors that tackle different issues. Here are a few: Mechanical Engineers deal with physical systems like building cars or airplane turbines, Civil Engineers deal with urban infrastructure issues (e.g bridges, smart cities, etc), Aerospace Engineers work on spacecrafts and problems relating to space exploration, Environmental Engineers help make systems more sustainable, Electrical Engineers work on digital or analog systems, signal processing, optics, or sensors, and Computer Science/Engineers build computer networks and software that we use in apps, operating systems, and more.
If all of that does not convince you to look into a career in STEM for 2019, an entry level software developer makes roughly ~$58,000 - $107,000 annually, an entry level Mechanical Engineer ~$60,000 – $110,000 , your family physician ~$112,000. For scale, the average American makes ~$48,000 per year.
How can you get involved in STEM today? Check out codeacademy.com, it is a free learning platform that teaches a wide variety of programming languages that show you how to build anything from a website to an app. Microsoft provides many learning modules and tutorials for various technologies like how to play with Hololens, their VR platform, or others like the Oculus Rift. To strengthen your math skills, check out khanacademy.com or again, reach out to me. If your school does not have programs to develop your STEM skills, talk to your principle.
STEM is not limited to the privileged, and there are many resources and tools for you to develop STEM skills right now. I first learnt to code by taking the initiative to learn Java through an online Advanced Placement course at my high school, but I understand that may not be accessible to everyone. In fact, I recently launched a nonprofit to solve this issue. It is called EmpowerU, and our mission is to facilitate the empowerment of young people and promote educational and financial resources for Caribbean students to attain a tertiary education and all of our resources are FREE. To learn more about my nonprofit, check out our website at empoweru.online or email me at admin@empoweru.online.
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