Yale University’s premier newspaper publication. The Yale Daily News. recently did an expose on the impact and importance when it comes to issues of diversity in STEM. The article focused on the impact that aspects such as race and gender might have when it comes to pursuing a career or a degree in STEM and STEM-related fields.

Even such an issue with diversity when it comes to STEM classes occurs here at Bishop Noll, according to Senior Mayra Pena.

“I feel that many females are apprehensive of STEM classes simply because they are perceived to be dominated by white males. When choosing to make DC Computer Programming last semester a lot of my female friends who I mentioned it to seemed to think I was crazy”.

This is an issue that continues to be discussed at Yale with a class even geared towards discussing such issues. According to the article published by the Yale Daily News, the class is “Headed by physics professor Simon Mochrie, “Being Human in STEM” aims to examine how factors such as gender, race, religion, sexuality and economic circumstances shape the STEM experience at Yale and nationwide. The class has drawn participants from a wide range of disciplines, including students double-majoring in STEM and other fields”.

Pena believes that despite STEM being a male-dominated field, there are some upsides to being a female in a room full of males.

“I believe that STEM classes can have a turn off because it is such a male-dominated field; however, I also believe that girls can actually have an advantage to females. More often than not, my male peers in a STEM class do not see me as a “threat” because I am a female. As a result I find that males are more welcoming to helping me out than they are helping other guys!”.

Pena is hopeful for the future of STEM and believes that classes such as this one held at Yale will be the turning point for STEM and it will allow greater changes coming.

“I strongly believe that in the near future STEM classes will become diverse in gender and race”.