Simran Kulkarni

About Simran
Simran Kulkarni is currently a junior from Mechanicsburg, PA, and she attends Cumberland Valley High School. She is extremely passionate about increasing the number of girls involved in STEM. She joined her first robotics team when she was ten and since then has been in love with all aspects of STEM. She also noticed a lack of female representation in activities heavily based on science, technology, engineering, and math. She started a mission to increase female participation in STEM-based activities in and around her community. Simran participates with the FIRST organization, is part of a robotics team in her area, and is also part of her school’s Science Olympiad team. She is also passionate about dance and has been dancing since the age of six. She also loves cooking, reading, teaching, and music.

About Simran's Project
Simran is currently focusing on a project called Hackathon, a coding day project where she will gather many girls and teach them some basic coding skills and concepts. This event is intended to be free, with the goal of getting more girls interested in computer science. This year, Simran was also selected as an EngineerGirl Ambassador by the National Academy of Engineering. As a part of the program, she is starting a club for underprivileged girls in her community. This club will focus on all areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. This club will focus and shed light on major engineering fields such as robotic engineering, chemical engineering, and computer engineering because these are fields where there is a lack of female representation. At each meeting, she will teach a lesson on a STEM concept or a specific career in the STEM field. After teaching students about the new concept, they will use the skills acquired in a STEM-based activity. The club includes girls from third through seventh grade. The club will have other strong young women as guest speakers to provide the girls with role models. As a part of her project, Simran will be working with STEM leaders and Ambassadors around the country as well to provide the best experience possible for the club. Simran's hopes for the project are to help provide more girls with the resources they need to succeed in the STEM field. Although many people try to argue that girls do have the opportunity to pursue careers in STEM, they tend to forget that there is still a strong stigma around girls in STEM, and it is still socially normal for STEM to be male-dominated. When she was younger, Simran would feel outcasted while participating in STEM activities because of the lack of female representation. She hopes that other girls do not go through the same negative experiences that she went through, and she hopes that she can be a part of the solution.

For the summer of 2022, Simran will be participating in a STEM program with the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs; they will be working on creating projects to empower girls in STEM.

Simran's Blog

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In our area, we have many girls interested in science and engineering and STEM altogether, but many do not have the facilities to nurture their interests. In Pennsylvania education, many policies cause schools to teach about STEM at an early age. However, in schools that do not have adequate funding, kids cannot fuel their STEM interests. As a result, there is less interest in the club and STEM likewise. I was shocked about how the younger girls were affected by this. Even though they wanted to participate in these activities, they soon lost interest because the activities did not help spark their imagination enough to keep them interested.

Especially now, due to covid, many girls don't have the inspiration to follow their passions and interests because they may find it hard to muster up motivation in these times. COVID-19 has taken a toll on many of us, especially kids, because they find it hard to cope without seeing their friends and classmates. We must find time to do things that make us happy. Learning new skills, joining calls with our friends, or just about anything that brings us joy can help us feel better during these challenging times. As a part of my Girls in STEAM club, we are making sure that all the girls involved have a safe place to communicate with their friends while also learning new skills and learning about strong women in STEAM.

For anyone reading this, make sure you find time for yourself away from the stress of COVID because everyone deserves some time to relax.

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It is a new year, and every new year around 74.02% of the population attempts a New Years resolution. These resolutions range from educational goals to health goals, spiritual goals, and everything in between. Although many people tend to start their years strong, less than 8% of the population stick to their resolutions. If that's true, what can we do to make sure we stick to our goals? Now this year due to the pandemic more than ever, the youth have taken it upon themselves to improve in their own ways. You may also be someone who wants to stick to a New Years resolution, and since I’m big on the science behind things, I decided to do some research and give you guys some tips on how to stay motivated.

Personally one of my main goals this year was to get more girls involved in STEM, but that is extremely broad. So the first thing you want to do to make sure that your goals are attainable is to make them more specific. For example, if you want to read more this year, instead of making your resolution to read more try to make it something like, “this year I will read 15 pages every day”. So, in my resolution case, I am choosing to work on getting the girls in my STEM club involved in more STEM activities. This way you will be able to actually measure your growth.

Another thing that will help you stick to your resolutions is to find some way to document your success and journey with your goals. Since my goal this year is to get the girls involved in my STEM club to participate in other activities that will let them explore their interests, I decided to keep a journal to keep track of all the activities and meetings that we have in our STEM club. Some things that you may want to keep track of in your journals could be how you feel, what progress you’ve made, or what things you wish you could have done differently, along with whatever you think will be helpful to your progress.

One last note that I will leave you all off with is to make sure you stay positive with yourselves. Even if you make mistakes along the way, you are always gonna be able to get back up tomorrow. Instead of attacking yourself, use these mistakes as lessons on how you can improve yourself. I personally believe that this one tip will help you a lot with your goals. Once you understand that you can always pick yourself up, that's when you will start to see your mood lift and your goals actually progress because you no longer feel engulfed by the thought of being perfect. You are in control, so make 2021 your year.