In the male-dominated world of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, St. Francis High students find opportunity and support in their all-girls robotics and Science Olympiad teams.
According to the International Coalition of Girls Schools, girls attending an all-girls school are six times more likely to consider majoring in a STEM subject and three times more likely to consider engineering careers compared to girls who attended co-educational high schools.
Kinnera Tirumala is a senior at St. Francis who has immersed herself in all the STEM opportunities St. Francis has to offer. She has been a part of St. Francis’s world-champion robotics team throughout her high school career, and this year she is a member of its executive leadership team. She is also the CEO of Echelon Catapult, an organization of high school students dedicated to teaching STEM to middle school students in underserved communities.
While she still would have taken advantage of STEM classes and extracurriculars at a co-educational school, Tirumala agrees that St. Francis’s all-girls STEM environment has given her a safer space to explore robotics and engineering.
“It’s also helped me find a sense of purpose, because I see people in my field who look like me, and therefore I am more encouraged to pursue STEM,” Tirumala said. “I’ve had this pleasure of being in a sisterhood of girls where we support one another because we know what it’s like to be a minority in the workforce.”
These aspects of an all-girls educational environment are very attractive to young girls and their parents who are looking at different high schools in the Sacramento area. Alexa Mendoza, a freshman and new member on the robotics team this year, was excited to enroll at St. Francis when she heard about the myriad of STEM opportunities the school offers for its students. So far, she has particularly enjoyed meeting new people through robotics.
“A lot of us are freshmen or new members, and if we ever have questions, we can just ask anyone on the team who’s had more experience,” Mendoza said. “They understand that this is our first time being here. Being on a team with other grades just helps you adjust because some of us don’t have experience, and the older members are very knowledgeable and willing to share what they have learned.”
The St. Francis’ robotics team initially captured attention when it became the first all-female robotics team to win the Marine Advanced Technology Education ROV World Championship in the summer of 2023. All St. Francis students are eligible to join the team, and Tirumala encourages new students to try it out. This year, students and teachers are particularly excited for the new STEM Zone lab that is being built on campus.
The Science Olympiad team is getting a whole new space as well, and the school has also added a maker space that allows students to come in and make everything from club T-shirts to gifts for friends to parts for rockets.
Matilda Myers, a sophomore and a new member of the Science Olympiad team, said the resources St. Francis provides for its STEM teams really benefit the students and the teams.
“It’s amazing having access to an entire area blocked off specifically for STEM,” Myers said. “It gives us the much-needed room and resources to design, experiment and study, especially since so many girls here hope to pursue STEM-related fields.”
These young women are perfect examples of how an all-girls educational environment empowers young women to explore and pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and robotics coach Marcus Grindstaff said he has seen the growth of his students profoundly impact their futures.
“There’s a lot of stories of women who went on to study engineering or computer science from the robotics team, but one of them that’s really clear to me is my daughter’s experience,” Grindstaff said. “She had very little interest in engineering when she joined St. Francis, and now she’s a freshman at Purdue, studying mechanical engineering. The robotics team really impacted her and gave her the confidence to go after a mechanical engineering degree.”
Although Myers and Mendoza haven’t decided what they want to pursue as a career, Tirumala plans on majoring in electrical engineering, and she said she would not have the confidence to make this decision without her experiences at St. Francis
“Don’t shy away from those experiences, because all experiences are beautiful,” Tirumala said. “If you decide at any point it’s not for you, at least you know you’ve tried it. We really get to flourish and develop our sense of identity (at St. Francis), and I strongly believe that I would not be the person I am today without St. Francis’s guidance.”
