Programs at New Albany’s high school and middle school are preparing young women to take advantage of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) opportunities.

At the high school, technology teacher David Herman formed a club for female students interested in the STEM fields. He said he formed the club after learning many of the students were the only girls in STEM classes.

“It’s hard to be the only girl in a class,” Herman said. “You spend a lot of time dishing out as much as you get.”

Nila Richards, a Gahanna junior who attends some classes in New Albany and is a member of the STEM club, said it’s nice to talk to other girls who are interested in the same things.

Sophomore Kaitlyn Gliha, who is new to the district this year, said the STEM club has provided friends with similar interests.

“It helps me interact with girls who are interested in what I’m doing,” Gliha said.

Herman said the girls meet on Thursdays in his room during an early afternoon break.

Senior Katherine Miller, a club member, has helped expand the initiative to younger students. She came up with an idea to encourage younger girls at New Albany Middle School to consider careers in STEM fields (See related story below).

“We need a pre-high school system to encourage them so that when they get to that situation (of being the only girl in a class), they have someone to reach out to,” Herman said.

Miller said the STEM club works but it’s not reaching the girls soon enough. She said she designed a different type of club, called Future Innovators of New Albany (FIONA) for her senior seminar project. The club, which meets once a week after school, includes simple projects and experiments that would teach the girls about STEM classes, Miller said.

Miller said she used her own money to buy the items for experiments, and she talked to the middle school administration about starting the program.

“I think it’s a wonderful opportunity for the girls in middle school to have role models and also to become interested in STEM education,” said middle school principal Andy Culp.

At the beginning of the school year, Miller said, she announced FIONA and put up fliers. She found that once she got a few girls interested, word of mouth brought in more.

She ended up with 10 girls in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades who attend regularly. During their weekly meetings, FIONA club members have learned about chemical reactions by tie-dying T-shirts and learned about friction from building balloon-powered sleds.

“I’m trying to build confidence and technical prowess so that they have a support network that will sustain them,” Miller said.

The FIONA girls completed research projects at Miller’s request and shared the projects on Dec. 16. Miller presented each with a certificate of completion of the first FIONA club.

Eighth-grader Denisa Edmonds said she joined FIONA because her mother works in a science field and she wanted to learn more about science.

“I thought science was really boring before (FIONA),” Edmonds said. “I’m a lot more interested in science now. A year ago, I would not have thought about a career in this.”

Seventh-grader Kendall Taylor said she, too, had an interest in science and thought FIONA would be fun.

“I wanted to learn about (science) and I thought this would be a fun way to learn,” Taylor said. “Instead of just taking notes in class, we get involved in doing something.”

Though FIONA was supposed to end in December, Miller said, her three sophomore assistants, Harrine Ramesh, Ama Koranteng and Ashmi Patel, agreed to continue the club through the end of the school year.

“Kate has laid down the foundation,” Koranteng said. “I really like this and I want it to continue for a long time.”

Miller said one of the FIONA girls is even talking about running FIONA when she reaches high school. More importantly, she said, the high school robotics course numbers should include several more girls in the next few years, partly because of FIONA.

“This has been the most rewarding, transforming experience of my life,” Miller said. “I go in there and they look up to me. These girls will far surpass me by the time they are seniors.”

Miller plans to attend the University of Pennsylvania to study chemical and biomolecular engineering. She said she’d be interested in starting some sort of a STEM club there, as well.