Women In S.T.E.M.

By: Sophie Gubler

East Wake Academy STEM teacher Taleena Sines hopes more funding will target STEM programs, especially those for young women. STEM, which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, is usually a class dominated by boys. Sines is hoping to change that.

     Sine's passion for STEM  began when she was a young girl. One day,  she was in class when a tornado touched down near her school. Sines thought of tornadoes as “monsters” and storm trackers as people “who fight these monsters.” Hearing about the storm trackers sparked her interest in meteorology. 

     However, her college didn’t have a meteorology major. Also, she received a bit of criticism from one of her professors, due to her being a woman showing interest in this line of study. Sines then changed her major to computer science, which helped her realize her love for breaking things down for people, which eventually led her to become a teacher. Sines hopes to bridge the gap between the number of women in STEM and the number of men in STEM by sharing her story. Sines also stated that people should be excited about STEM classes because "You're learning something not everyone can do.”