EL PASO, Texas (KTSM)- The Loretto Academy hosted its annual Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) exhibit, an opportunity for students to showcase their science projects.
Oscar Nieto, the director of the program, said WISE encourages students to mix everything they have learned in their English, history and science classes and do TED Talk style presentations.
Nieto said that what distinguishes WISE from other STEM focused programs is that girls are doing what they are most interested in and what they are passionate about, allowing students to choose topics that interest them.
That was the case for Victoria Sotelo, she said her project was inspired by environmental issues like pollution, which led her to create chemical free products for the body.
Sotelo said that she and her classmates made a lip balm from calendula, which is a little orange flower turning it into a lip balm.
She said she is hopeful that projects like hers encourage others to make their own things instead of buying harmful products.
For Sotelo, her main inspiration has become her science teacher, she said he encourages her to do her best and they are currently working on a greenhouse project. She said her dream is to work in making chemical free products when she grows up.
Not too far from Sotelo’s presentation table was 10th grader Marcela Lievano, who said her experiment was about the bodies muscular PH.
Lievano said science was not her main interest, but she became interested in the subject because she was an athlete herself and she was naturally curious about what happens to the human body when she exercises.
Lievano’s tools to showcase included plastic cups with different dyed watercolors each representing the different PH levels. She said one of the things that she enjoys the most about the program is how fun her professor, “Mr. Jay,” makes it, and she never gets bored of science.
According to statistics from the United States Census Bureau, women continue to remain underrepresented in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) workforce.
Programs like WISE at Loretto Academy encourage young girls to “do something that’s out of the norm, not just a regular test. We are seeing their knowledge based on what they were able to learn on their own with guidance, of course, by the teachers,” said Nieto.
Nieto says that the program was established in 2018, and there are girls that are starting scholarships at New York University (NYU), and there are some that are being looked at by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Nieto added that WISE has helped students open up to new areas that they didn’t have interest in yet and they are applying themselves.
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