The power a teacher has is unmatched, and that power becomes even more influential when it’s your own grandma, said the president of the Women in Chem club.
The Women in Chem club is an organization new to Marshall but has quickly made a community for those inside and outside of the STEM field.
Kate Meek, the president of the club, said, “I was looking for clubs to join because a big part of like applications to medical schools is extracurriculars, and I was like, ‘Well, I want something that I actually want to be a part of,’ and I was looking, and there wasn’t really anything.”
Meek said she thought to herself about how she should just start a club to provide a space for all her friends and anyone who wanted to join and provide resources, no matter who they are. She said even though the field is not as male dominated as it once was, she still felt a need to provide a space for women.
“It’s still pretty lonely, and you don’t feel as like a lot of the men I’ve met in field where, like, they were not sexist at all, but it was very clear that they felt like that they belonged,” Meek said. “I was kind of like, ‘I have to prove that I’m supposed to be here,’ instead of just showing up. So, I was like, ‘I want this club to give women a chance to not just feel that they have to prove themselves.’”
Meek said she wanted to give women in the STEM field a sense of belonging and to create a supportive network. Meek has provided resources such as contacts with specific professors, research help and any help that if she can’t provide, then one of her fellow women officers can.
The club started last year, and the organization has over 20 members.
Meek said it has been nothing but exciting when she gets to talk to students in a bunch of different classes and see this relaxation the women in her classes have when she extends a helping hand, and the club has become nothing but tight knit since.
“All the officers are my friends, and then a lot of the members I already knew prior to them joining,” Meek said. “But I have gotten a couple of emails from people, and everyone that comes into the club, even if it’s just for one meeting, like, immediately I have just been connected to them. Even if they don’t come for a meeting, but they at least heard about the club, immediately there is already some connection because I feel like they can tell that I’m passionate about it, and I’m just excited that they like chemistry as much as I do, even if they walk by the door and wave, I’m like, ‘You’re part of the group now.’”
Meek said she loves chemistry and science, and that it comes from a very special place in her family, specifically, her grandmother, a former teacher at Huntington High.
“I would sit in the classroom with her, and she loves biology, so when I was a kid, I would go over to her house, and we would play cards, and we would talk about science, and so I think the passion that I have for science comes from her,” Meek said. “She was passionate about sharing her knowledge of biology to every single student that she possibly could.”
She said anyone she talked to about her grandmother when it came to teaching was only good things, and that had an impact on Meek.
“I feel I just get that desire to share what I love to everyone I know from her,” Meek said.
Meek said it is cool to be a woman right now in the field, especially since it wasn’t always seen as an option, and not every woman gets the opportunity to strive towards their passion.
“When my mom was growing up, she went to a very Christian private school, and the jobs that they told she could have been was a teacher or a mom pretty much,” Meek said. “She’s an accountant now. She’s doing great, and she is so smart, but I get to talk to her and then immediately turn around and walk into a class where I’m learning everything I need to become a doctor when she wasn’t even told that was an option.”
“It is cool to see all the other women in the classes that I’m in striving for these things when you literally can just read the news and see all of these countries that just don’t let women do that,” Meek said. “Knowing that I have that opportunity when so many other women don’t, it makes me feel like I have to do this. I have to do it for all the people that can’t.”
Soleil Woolard can be contacted at [email protected].
