Walls’ Girls in STEM Face Unique Challenges

Photo credit: Namuun Bold (‘26)

Despite being a humanities focused school, many Walls students are involved in  level STEM (short for science, technology, engineering, and math). Though high level STEM programs and classes are near-universally challenging, they often pose unique challenges for female students, who face barriers in a male dominated field.  

There’s a considerable breadth of STEM offerings at Walls ranging from upper level science classes like AP Chemistry, AP Biology, and AP Physics to advanced math classes like AP Calculus and Multivariable Calculus to the junior/senior year internship. For the girls at Walls who opt to take these classes, challenges such as the lack of high school STEM internships and a lack of space in Walls STEM classes come up. 

Irene Wiegand-Vera (‘25), a senior interested in pursuing biomedicine, mentioned the looming presence of males in STEM fields.  In her internship, she was the only female working in the coding department of the production of biomedical lasers. Wiegand-Vera added that STEM internships for junior year were accessible but most have a very long and thorough application process.  

Wiegand-Vera, like other girls at Walls, relies on Walls STEM classes and internship opportunities because of the difficulty of breaking into extracurricular STEM spaces. “There is [definitely] a demographic issue in the STEM clubs,” she said, alluding to their male skew.  These overwhelming numbers potentially discourage girls from joining those clubs.  

For Daria Flabbi-Fruttero (‘25), a senior interested in pursuing medicine, being placed in the high-level classes that she wanted to take at Walls has been a significant challenge. The STEM classes at Walls do have relatively limited spots compared to other high level humanities classes at Walls, which are generally easier to access to any student (for example, AP U.S. History) because of their connection to the school’s central focus. 

Calculus teacher Kristen Kelly recognized that accessing these classes can be challenging because “half of my students take the class for their futures, and the other half for their applications.” When students who aren’t necessarily interested in a subject pursue that course it often prevents other students, like Flabbi-Fruttero, from getting into them–a challenge that’s of particular note because such students also can feel excluded from STEM focused extracurriculars. 

Flabbi-Fruttero is the founder of the Health Occupations Students of America chapter at Walls (HOSA) which seeks to “empower HOSA-Future Health Professionals to become leaders in the global health community, through education, collaboration, and experience.” 

Flabbi-Fruttero founded the club with the challenges of girls in STEM in mind. Specifically, she hoped that it could serve as a place for all students interested in medicine, it would be a very welcoming destination for anyone who wants to learn more about the medical field. 

Many of the more daunting barriers for Walls’ girls in STEM lay beyond their time in high school. According to MIT, “Many individuals still associate STEM fields with masculine qualities, leading to stereotypes that can discourage girls and women from pursuing STEM education and careers.”  Daria explained, “I will say there have been multiple times where I have told people that I want to go into medicine and they say ‘Oh! You want to be a nurse!’”  She added that while she recognizes the importance of nurses, she really wants to be a doctor.  

Still, girls interested in STEM at Walls remain dedicated to pursuing their goals.  As Wiegand-Vera put it, “If you're interested, even if you struggle, don’t stop until you're completely fascinated.”