When asked how their first year in college was, both girls said they were enjoying the experience. Angie mentioned that she was nervous, and when her parents dropped her off, she asked herself, “What will I do now?” However, she was able to thrive with a strong support group and the independence college offers. Most importantly, she feels grateful for this experience! Alex added that she picked the right school for her, the University of Wisconsin – Madison. She enjoys her classes, joining clubs and organizations, and attending Badger sporting events.

What Did You Find Most Challenging?

When asked what was most challenging in the first year of college, both women commented on the need to create schedules tailored to their needs. Most high school students spend hours a day in class and then spend nights and weekends in extracurricular activities and part-time jobs. Once arriving in college, students need to figure out when they need to study, when social time works, and most importantly, when to ask for help! Striking a balance is hard to accomplish at times.

what did you find Most Surprising?

One surprise Angie shared was learning about the variety of classes offered in college. She was amazed at the opportunity to go deep into subjects she was interested in and the number of interesting courses offered. Another surprise that requires changing your mindset is going from perfect grades in high school to a realization that all your current classmates were also at the top of their class in high school and coming to terms with the fact that a 4.0 grade point may not be realistic.

Advice to high school seniors?

Time management:  Make your schedule, and write it down. This includes planning homework time and social time. And then implement this schedule early in the school year.

Another great point from Angie is, “Don’t only consider one aspect. Take tours! Especially during the school year.” This lets the prospective student see the school in session vs. visiting an under-populated summer college campus.

What would be your dream job?

Angie is passionate about Computer Science and Programming and dreams of working in the intersection between law and computer science. She enjoyed watching the coded bias film about ethics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) and is interested in defending people and becoming an advocate for ethics and AI.

Alex in high school wanted to work at NASA however after finding Healthcare Engineering, she dreams to go to Washington DC and become the Secretary of Health and Human Services in the cabinet.

We are so excited that both girls are dreaming big and doing their part to advance more women in STEM!

How and when were you inspired to pursue STEM?

Women have inspired both girls in STEM. Former teachers, current professors, and other famous women in STEM have played a part in their aspirations to pursue STEM. Alex attributes her parents to her love of math and science. Her mom was a meteorology major, and her dad was a math major, and they met at UW-Madison! She also credits several Catholic Memorial High School teachers, including Mrs. Pietre, for inspiring her.

Angie fell into computer science after randomly taking a computer science course in her sophomore year of high school at Reagan High School - MPS. She loves problem-solving and debugging a problem. She attributes a high school internship at Northwestern Mutual to growing her interest in computer science.

After watching the Coded Bias Documentary, Angie admires Dr. Joy Buolamwini. Joy is the founder of the Algorithmic Justice League, an award-winning researcher, and a poet of code. She advises world leaders, policymakers, and executives on redressing algorithmic harms. Her work is featured in global exhibitions and the documentary Coded Bias. This documentary explores the fallout of MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini’s discovery that facial recognition does not see dark-skinned faces accurately and her journey to push for the first-ever legislation in the U.S. to govern against bias in the algorithms that impact us all.

How did winning the scholarship impact you?

Both women shared that winning the scholarship helped ease their financial burden. Alex commented that “it allowed me to accept an internship to advance my engineering skills instead of being forced to take a higher paying part-time job that was unrelated to her field.” Angela commented that

Every year I am amazed at our scholarship winners' continued success. It is inspiring to think that this is our future STEM workforce! Please visit here to learn about the 2023 STEM Forward Scholarship Winners.

Do you want to help build the next generation of STEM talent? Consider sponsoring or golfing in our 18th Annual STEM Forward Scholarship Program Fundraiser Golf Outing on August 10, 2023. We hope you will join us!

Posted on May 12, 2023 by Maureen Haeger. Communications & Program Manager.