East Central senior creating Women In STEM club

(ST. LEON, Ind.) – An East Central incoming senior is leading a new initiative to empower her female classmates. 

Maddie Burke is launching the Women in STEM Club at the high school in an effort to inspire girls to pursue their career passions.

Burke has always excelled in science and math and recently discovered that her future might be engineering. 

She knows that she isn’t the only girl her age with a STEM-related interest. 

“A lot of those fields are male-dominated and I wanted to create a club where women can gain confidence, develop the industry skills and feel empowered with their career interests,” Burke told The 812. 

This club will begin in the fall and there are already 17 students that have joined. 

Their first goal is to connect with East Central alumni who are in careers related to science, technology, engineering or math. 

They are hoping for guest speakers and possibly some field trips to different STEM-related organizations. 

“While we hope to identify East Central graduates, we are also open to meeting with women in those careers from the surrounding area as well,” she added. 

She is also hoping to develop workshops, mentoring opportunities and volunteer initiatives for the club members. 

Burke hopes this new club is something that impacts students long after she graduates next year. 

“I want girls to know that they can be leaders in STEM and that they can feel powerful and confident. I also encourage girls at other area high schools to consider creating a club of their own,” she said.

Want to contact the East Central Women In STEM club? You can email the club sponsors which are math teacher Ann Bovard by clicking here or assistant principal Jamie Rosfeld by clicking here.

Maddie is no stranger to taking on leadership roles as she has also served as class vice president of Student Council and vice president of National Honor Society.

She plans to major in engineering in college but has not yet decided which path or school.