AACC alumni and current students shared details, answered questions about their research projects with visitors at an event on Wednesday.

SCIdea’s Women in Science subcommittee and the Super Science Club hosted the Student Panel: Women in Research within Science Disciplines event, where visitors got to ask questions about the panelist’s experiences in scientific research. 

“We are hoping that [visitors] will find something that resonates with them within the participants in their experiences or gain some interest and maybe do some research on the college,” Krista White, a biology professor, said.

Super Science Club advisor Anthony Santorelli said the Women in Science subcommittee has hosted the event for three years and the Super Science Club got involved with the event a year later.

“Last year was focused on current and graduating students from AACC,” Santorelli said. “This year … we had the idea of having a panel of female science students who have done research in a science department through different avenues.”

According to Santorelli, the event gave students a chance to share their “voice.”

“Having the voice of students is so powerful,” Santorelli said. “To … show experiences as well as successes [and] challenges that we face … we were very happy with [it].”

AACC alumna Zoe Brunton, who spoke about her experiences in STEM as a woman at the event, said she is often in the minority when working in STEM.

“The physics department at UMD has the lowest gender parity of any department there,” Brunton said. “You know, if you have six physics students only one is a woman…that can be difficult.” 

According to Brunton, it’s important to “build your community.”

“You have to find your people,” Brunton said. “They don’t even have to be like other women. … What’s important is to find other people who support you.”

Second-year environmental science student McKenna Chadwick said she was excited to discuss her time in the RISE program at AACC.

“I’ve been waiting for someone to ask me about it because I would never shut up about it if they did,” Chadwick said. 

Chadwick said she hopes that other students can feel the same motivation she feels for scientific research.

“Every day when I woke up to go to the RISE [Research-Intensive Summer Experience] program, I felt motivated, which is a hard thing for me to feel when I’m doing the same thing every day,” Chadwick said. “I hope that someone may feel like that. Find something that they feel motivated for every day.”

Katie Brunton, a visitor and Zoe Brunton’s sister, said she felt the event was “empowering.”

“It … made me feel like I could actually get into research,” Brunton said.