SILS高级桥梁STEM性别差距

Julia Crume grew up playing video games with an older brother who also had a passion for tech and building his own computers. 在摩尔斯维尔公立高中, 她数学很好, 上她的第一堂编程课, AP计算机科学, 作为大四学生. But she often felt unwelcome in classrooms dominated by males.

“I was in a lot of high-level math classes, and I had some jerks in my classes. That kinda fueled my fire,” said Crume, now a senior in the 信息与图书馆学院.

Crume acknowledged that her reaction was not the typical one. Most women leave STEM fields in middle school due to a lack of support from teachers and classmates, she discovered in her re太阳城娱乐城 for a high school paper. 克鲁姆决定要帮助改变这种状况. 在高中时, she asked women in STEM fields to make encouraging videos that she could share with middle school girls in the area.

她继续在太阳城娱乐开展外联工作, 加入像STEM姐妹这样的俱乐部, where she became a community outreach executive as a sophomore, 北卡罗来纳大学的女性在数学方面更出色, 工程与科学. 为UNC的女性, she is the counselor director for a day camp for fourth, fifth and sixth grade girls who come to campus to learn about science from volunteer professors and graduate students.

She also helps organize Women in Tech Week on campus, which includes job interview practice. She’s on Carolina’s student technology council and works part time at the software survey company Qualtrics.

It’s tough to balance it all, but Crume finds the activities incredibly fulfilling.

“When you’re in college and you’re getting so burned out from STEM, it’s nice to be reminded of what made you love it in the first place. To see these girls get so excited about making slime and other silly things, it’s amazing,” she said.

She started Carolina as a computer science major but switched to SILS. “尽管我很喜欢编程，但我想学得更多. I loved that I got a better overall understanding of the business side of technology, 我还能写代码.”

Crume credits the SILS staff for inspiring and supporting her as she explored her various passions in technology. “The really cool thing about SILS is how supportive they are. A SILS class was my first class in college where the professor memorized everyone’s names, 那是一个很大的班级. 这对我来说意义重大.”

She particularly enjoyed the 信息 and Computer Ethics class led by adjunct faculty member Dianne Martin, who was a programmer for the Apollo 8 and Apollo 11 space missions.

“We talked about the ethics of AI and other up-and-coming technologies,克鲁姆说. “Our end-of-semester project was a re太阳城娱乐城 presentation at the SILS showcase. The dean of SILS came, and we got to present what we found to an audience.”

A junior, Crume only needs to complete her capstone project class for her 信息科学专业, but she is also majoring in new media, with a minor in data science. After she leaves Carolina, advocacy for women in STEM will still be in her future.

“I don’t want to have to think about other little girls experiencing the same things I did,克鲁姆说. “I was fortunate that I had brothers who helped me have thick skin but also supported me. Not everyone has that, so hopefully soon other girls won’t have to fear things like that ever again.”

This story was written by Will Hassell, a former student intern at SILS.