Meet the Board
of
*Biweekly meetings on Wednesday lunches in Room 710 (Brighton) at University High School, CA
Jihee Yoon| Founder & President [email protected]
Jihee Yoon is the founder of the StempowerHer organization. As a junior at University High School, Orange County, she decided to create this organization especially because of her strong passion for achieving equality among both men and women, and her love for young girls, math, and science. She grew up in a very supportive environment where she was not limited by her parents and extended family due to her gender, but she knows that it is not the same for every girl. Through this organization in her senior year, Jihee hopes to reach out to girls and help them gain confidence as they explore the fascinating parts of math and science. She is a strident feminist and a firm believer in women's rights as well, and she frequently discuss these topics and the need for change with her peers. Jihee hopes to positively impact young girls at a young age so that more women will become innovators of science, technology, engineering, and math in the next generation.
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Kaitlyn Yang| Vice President
[email protected]
Kaitlyn Yang is a senior at University High School and serves as StempowerHer’s Vice President. She joined the StempowerHer team because she had an undying love for math and science beginning at a very young age. However, she soon realized through classes and competitions that she was often one of the few girls interested in or exposed to the STEM fields, and she made it her mission to achieve gender equality for future generations of girls stronger. Last summer, through her eye opening and unique experience at Girls Who Code, an organization dedicated to creating opportunities for girls in computer science, Kaitlyn further realized how male dominated STEM fields really are. This further motivated her to give other young girls the same opportunities that she was fortunate to have. Through StempowerHer, she hopes to educate and impact young girls so that one day females are equally represented in STEM fields!
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Raina Zhao| Director of External Affairs
[email protected]
Raina is a senior at University High School. From a young age, she has been aware of the inequality women face daily in the world, and she has been a feminist for as long as she can remember (though she didn't know the official term for it until she was a little older!). Raina has fond memories of feeling inspired by strong women as a child, looking up to women in history who have taken a stand as heroes. She also has not-so-fond memories of seeing disproportionate numbers of girls compared to boys in the advanced math programs she took, and hearing casual remarks such as "Boys just have brains better suited for math and science". This is simply not true. Raina truly believes that given the right encouragement and opportunities, girls will succeed as much as boys do in STEM related fields. Raina stands firmly by the goals of StempowerHer and will work as hard as she can to meet them!
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Elissa Early| Secretary
[email protected]
Elissa Early is a junior at University High School and StempowerHer’s Secretary. Aside from Elissa’s interest in Science, she believes that girls from all age groups and backgrounds should not feel scared or inadequate to choose what they want to do in the future. She thinks it's important to educate and empower girls to understand that regardless of whichever field it is, they do have the ability to achieve it. This is especially important for STEM as there is a large lack of females in many STEM fields. She believes StempowerHer is a great opportunity to teach young girls about STEM fields, and broaden their horizons.
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Diya Chakraborti| Publicity Team Director
[email protected]
Diya Chakraborti is a sophomore at University High School and StempowerHer’s Publicity Team Director. She enjoys anything related to biology and chemistry, and looks forward to spreading her love for science. Growing up as the only girl in her advanced math classes, Diya knew something was wrong right away: very few girls were interested in math and science. Ever since she joined StempowerHer, she realized that many girls are actually smarter than boys but simply lack the confidence to stand up for themselves. Through the club’s outreach events, Diya aspires to build confidence in girls at a young age while promoting open discussion and engaging in enjoyable, challenging activities. In the future, she hopes to reach out to girls of varying socioeconomic backgrounds so that all girls can join the ride for gender equality.
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Yasaman| Educating Team Director
[email protected]
Yasaman Lorkalantari is a senior at University High School and head of the Education Team in Stempowerher. She loves anything related to biology, writing, and graphic design. Coming from a background in which there was not much support for women in STEM, she understands the importance of helping girls gain the confidence needed to follow their dreams. She believes that the girls helping other girls is a great starting point for this and can lead to much change. In Stempowerher, she is in charge of organizing different events at libraries and schools, focusing mainly on creating different activities and experiments to do with the children. Through the club and these events, she hopes to help more girls find a passion for science and technology and support them as they follow their passions in the future.
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Mirabel Hu| Fundraising Team Director
[email protected]
Intrigued by “STEM” part of the club name, Mirabel hoped to gain a broader knowledge of math and science. After the first couple club meeting, Mirabel realized what made her truly want to stay at the club is the “HER” part. At Stempowerher meetings, all the girls exchange excellent ideas regarding not only math and science fields, but also the empowerment of women in such fields. Mirabel began actively participating in club meetings, and she was lucky to find a place that offered a sense of enthusiasm and thrill. Stempowerher provides opportunities for high school students to exercise their passions, skills, and interests to give back to their communities in profound ways. Mirabel serves as the head of Fundraising Team. Alongside dedicated and empathetic peers, she hoped to build a stage for more young female scientists and let them shine.
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Jennifer Sun| Treasurer
[email protected]
Jennifer Sun is a senior at University High School and StempowerHer’s Treasurer. She is interested in a wide variety of STEM fields, including biology, chemistry, physics and math. She believes that women are inherently equal to men, no matter what society says, and that women should be encouraged to pursue their interests no matter what their interests are. She has very supportive parents who encourage her to aspire and to follow her STEM dreams, and she hopes to pass on that encouragement to the next generation of young women. Many women have the brains and skills that rival or even surpass those of men, however they are very commonly told otherwise through societal means. Through this club and its outreach programs, Jennifer aims to encourage and positively impact the next generation of female dreamers.
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Alice Zhou| Technician
[email protected]
Alice Zhou is a junior at University High School and serves as StempowerHer’s technology director. She is passionate about achieving gender equality and particularly in STEM field. With interest in science and math, Alice joins StempowerHer to help encourage girls to stand firmly upon what their beliefs and be confident to make choices for future. By participating in club events like speaker series and testimonies and every discussion followed, Alice finds that girls can shine in stem field with no difference as boys. Girls are not lack of abilities to make achievements and innovations, instead, every girl that is interested in stem should not be affected by other’s comments or ideas targeting in gender that will hint their steps. Alice works with publicity team, takes pictures of the events, makes posters, etc to help spread StempowerHer so that more girls could have a chance to do what they believe and build themselves upon that.
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Share! |
Spread the awareness of STEMPOWERHER to make a greater change within the community! More girls need encouragement to enter STEM fields, more so because women are underrepresented in these fields.
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