Meet Reeti
Reeti is an 8th grade student from New Jersey and loves everything STEM, including making, robotics, math, computer science, and just science in general, especially biology.
Reeti is on the math team and participates in math competitions.
“I love competitive math and competitive programming. I think one of the most exciting things to do is solve a really hard problem. Or maybe you're debugging a program and you finally get it to work after several hours or days. Or maybe you're working on a robot and you finally get it to move in the right direction.
I think competitions are great because they encourage problem-solving. That's something girls especially don't get an opportunity to do because they shy away from competitions. They don't really get that opportunity to problem solve and experiment.”
Reeti also loves nature and hopes to do research in computational biology one day - combining her love of biology and computer science.
“One day I want to do research in computational biology, which is a combination between the world of computer science and the world of biology - two of my favorite subjects. So that's something I'm looking forward to in the future. I want to further my STEM4-Her initiative because I love reaching out to girls who aren't as interested in STEM and encouraging them to pursue STEM.”
Reeti got excited about math in elementary school with math olympiads. She continued competing in middle school because she had so much fun.
“When I work on competitive math outside of school I feel like it makes me more innovative. It develops my problem-solving skills. When you develop your problem-solving skills, it helps you both inside and outside the classroom. I try to convey this problem-solving culture to my students.”
Reeti shares more about why some girls might not feel as comfortable problem solving with peers. She advocates for girls-only spaces to encourage more girls in STEM.
“Girls definitely have an ability to problem solve. It's just that they aren't very comfortable because in the workshops I've attended, I've noticed they're a minority. I understand that feeling because I've been there. With mostly guys in class I’ve feel less comfortable participating. But, when you put them in an environment with only girls, they feel more comfortable participating, innovating and problem-solving. That's something that we could do. We need to give them those spaces where they can innovate.”
Reeti has had a lot of support not only with her own STEM journey, but also in operating STEM4-Her, an initiative Reeti has run for the last two years. STEM4-Her provides hands-on STEM activities for elementary and middle school girls, especially those from underserved districts.
“There's been a ton of people who have helped me along my journey. I have an older brother. He's equally passionate about STEM as I am. It's due to his influence that I'm as interested in STEM as I am today. In addition to my brother, my parents are also very supportive of my endeavors. When I started STEM4-Her, they were very supportive of it. They helped me get some classes and workshops.
My local 4-H director has been very supportive of our classes. She's provided this platform for our organization to be more successful and reach more people. The librarians at the libraries where we teach are also very cooperative. They help us schedule the classes to help us reach more kids. The director of our local Boys and Girls Club - due to them we were able to hold so many workshops and classes.
I think every girl should have either a role model or someone who's supporting them along the way to really encourage them.”
Reeti also volunteers for two programs called WeMake and STEM4-Her. Reeti shares more about how she developed STEM4-Her, after her participation in WeMake 4-H.
“STEM4-Her is my initiative to basically just uplift girls. I work with another nonprofit called WeMake 4-H, which offers weekly free workshops to underprivileged kids, some special needs workshops and other workshops, basically to get people who aren't already interested in STEM thinking about STEM. Maybe they see a robot for the first time and they think this is very cool. That's our mission.
I noticed that in all of these workshops, girls are always the minority - like always. I didn't like this, so I started STEM4-Her. Girls don't feel as confident to participate. Girls need to be able to participate and problem-solve and feel comfortable sharing their ideas.”