EVHS’s small gym bursts to life as students flock to The 4th Annual STEM Night
Author: Jason Lin
Date: March 16, 2022
A STEM Night like no other:
Neil Pham/EVHS Yearbook: Emad Abid’s educating EVHS about applying Biomedical engineering technology.
STEM night had long been a part of the EVHS community. In the 2018 - 2019 school year, STEM night was originally the brainchild of the recently formed EVHS Biomedical engineering club. Yet even despite the merging of EVHS Biomedical club with EVHS Chemistry and EVHS Bioengineering club, STEM night remains a tried and true tradition of EVHS’s student culture.
Now three years later, Stem Night is still going strong as one of the most significant events on EVHS campus. This year a total of 9 clubs: Robotics, HOSA, Neurology, Science Olympiad, SNHS, AMSA, Cloud Computing, Forensics, and EVHS CBE (Chemistry Bioengineering Club) joined forces in hosting one of the biggest Stem Night.
Yet the planning of so many clubs had some challenges:
“I’d say the most difficult part was just piecing it all together. There are multiple components to Stem Night and there is a lot of delegation and a lot of small tasks that you have to keep track of. If you get held back then it can get really difficult to catch up.” said Avishi, President of CBE and Head Officer of STEM Night, “So it is just a lot of planning ahead of time making sure 7 you are making those lists and you know what you want to provide to all of the people attending and just making that happen. Because if the planning is not being done and the delegation is not being done then it can get very messy because there are so many components.”
A complex and big event indeed.
Neil Pham/EVHS Yearbook: Students and their siblings deciphering a crime scene designed by the Forensics Club.
Over 80 students participated in STEM night with club-run activities such as heart valve making, jeopardy, robotics demonstrations, and much more. Students also earned raffle tickets which went into an event-wide raffle for many prizes. The hustle and bustle of students moving between tables and gaining insights about STEM buzzed throughout the gym: a truly remarkable sight.
Neil Pham/EVHS Yearbook: Tiffany standing with this year’s grand prize, raffle winner
Furthermore, STEM night was graced with the speeches of 4 premiere speakers: Emid Abid, president of SJSU BME; Dr. Jennifer Johnson, a physiology professor at SJSU; Gaura Goyal, Principal Architect at ServiceNow; Dr. Anh L.Diep, UAW Lead Organizer and Day One Policy Fellow. Yet their true spectacle wasn’t just in their experience but also in their unique perspectives within STEM fields.
“I loved inviting speakers. Just because people don’t realize how many different jobs and how many different opportunities there are in the stem field and interdisciplinary opportunities specifically. There is not just a general biologist, or general engineer. They are different subjects that can combine to create different careers, “ said Avishi.
The diversity in STEM which the speakers brought was also another central point of interest among student interviews:
“It’s interesting because It’s relevant to what’s happening in the world and this year I saw a lot of girls there so it was nice to see women in STEM and it helps other people with various opportunities in STEM.” said Preethi, an officer of Neuroscience Club.
Others stated that the speakers increased their interests within the STEM field, providing answers to the pathway of getting into the field in the first place.
“The different speakers that were lined up at Stem Night were definitely a good learning experience in terms of career opportunities and how to get them.” said Sumanth, a Junior participant, “Especially given that a lot of the struggle with wanting to work through what I wanted to do has been getting more understanding of how to get involved in these types of industries. And this definitely helps narrow it down, especially in research and such.”
Yet out of all the speakers, Anh Diep, the final speaker, caught the most amount of attention.
Neil Pham/EVHS Yearbook: Anh Diep explains how she connected biology and medicine to advocacy.
“My favorite speaker was Anh Diep, who I really enjoyed hearing from as a former alumni of EVHS. Getting that information and seeing how EVHS had helped them was very interesting and motivational.”: said Daleep, Science Olympiad President.
The Future of Stem Night:
Neil Pham/EVHS Yearbook: Group Photo of the officers, advisors, and speakers who made it all possible.
Through the smashing success of this year’s STEM night, many of the participating club’s officers agreed to participate again next year as well. Furthermore, recommendations for improvement that remained primarily logistical have been already taken into consideration by the succeeding year’s officers.
“I do. I’m looking forward to what my club and what other clubs bring to the table,” said Parth, President of Cloud Computing (responding to the question: Do you look forward to EVHS Stem Night for next year?)
CBE will also be looking for new clubs to partner with for STEM Night, especially those who can bring a new, unique lens to STEM overall.
“At the surface level these clubs will seem really academically oriented. But I feel like really understanding the purpose of clubs themselves as a means of being able to build coalitions and being able to share your passion and love.” said Sumanth, “I feel like that is something that a lot of people need to catch on to and events like these sort of help you realize that. “
Neil Pham/EVHS Yearbook: A torch for the next generation of STEM enthusiasts.
In the succeeding year, CBE plans to extend STEM night toward emphasizing not just the student community but also the San Jose Community. The next step toward integrating STEM night as a tradition for EVHS and the world.
“In the future, hopefully when covid goes down, we can get a lot more people to come and advertise a bit more and basically increase the number of people who are coming to STEM night.” said Avishi, “As well as make it an annual thing in the community. Just people talking about it at different schools and not just EVHS.”
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