Girls Entering Engineering Club
When Alexa Pellechia competed in the Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) Solar Go-Kart Race last year, she was the only girl, not only on the Gulf Coast High School (GCHS) team, but in the entire competition. Finishing her sophomore year, Pellechia knew she couldn’t be the only girl out there interested in engineering.
It’s a sentiment echoed by fellow females at the school who entered the NAF (National Academy Foundation) Engineering Academy in its inaugural year.
“We were all in engineering last year. We took the starting class in the academy,” says sophomore Madisyn Tedro. “We all really enjoyed it, but it was kind of weird because it was a predominately male class.”
When speaking to other girls, they wondered two things, why weren’t more girls taking engineering and how they could convince them to get involved.
“We just sat down, brainstormed, and the next year, we perused what we talked about, and it became this,” says sophomore Sophia Kvachneva.
And like that, the Girls Entering Engineering Club (GEEC) was formed. With a mission to share their passion for engineering, the GEECs hope to introduce the field to young girls.
“Engineering is becoming more relevant as time goes on, and a lot more fields are developing. Right now, there aren’t as many females working in these fields as males or pursuing these degrees in college. If we can somehow engage girls and say, ‘hey you can study these fields too,’ those numbers would increase,” Pellechia says.
Just this year, they’ve visited many local elementary schools to talk to girls about engineering, and also spoke at the district’s iSTEM Conference and FGCU’s Project Lead the Way.
When they’re not inspiring others, the GEECs are challenging themselves, and their major goal was the Solar Go-Kart Race. Pellechia became the project manager of the first all-girls team in race history.
“It was great to have all these girls want to participate, unlike the previous year when it was all guys. Having a smaller group of girls, we could all work on the small projects together and really get an idea of how each piece worked before moving on to the next part.”
“Parents were cheering, there were people from other schools cheering. Even the boys from other schools were coming over and saying, ‘Whoa, this is really cool. How did you do this?’ It was really cool to share that with other people,” Tedro says.
They might’ve been newcomers, but you wouldn’t be able to tell from their results. The GEECs placed second in the relay competition and third in the speed races. The GCHS boys’ team won the overall championship, and while the GEECs celebrated with them, Tedro says they really know what to fix to make sure they take home the title next year.
After working on the go-kart for five months, the GEECs are looking toward the future of their club.
“We want to have a GEEC Club or some type of girl’ STEM club in every high school in Collier County. We found it was so important for us to have this connection with other girls who share the same passion, and we think that if we had that on a broad scale, even more girls would be drawn to the field,” Tedro says.
Right now, they’re contacting teachers at every high school and spreading their message. She says she hopes other schools will begin their clubs as soon as the next school year.
Sophomore Viva Lass sums it up.
“People think that girls aren’t interested in the engineering field, but being in class just proves that we are out there, we are interested, and we want more females to feel the same way.”