By Rosa E. Gutierrez, STC – Mathematics Instructor 

Girls Discovering Math Plans

Girls Discovering Math started as an idea to promote math and create a community for our female students to build the confidence and motivation to achieve their educational goals.  

Our mission statement:  To support and inspire minority women’s interest in the STEM fields by promoting STEM associate degree, create a community where students can socialize, share interests, and support each other to meet their education goals.

Promotion of the club began in our Academic Division with Deans and Department Chairs in Fall 2022.  

Girls Discovering Math Club was officially launched in late Spring 2023 semester at South Texas College.  We started with an introductory meeting of the advisors and the purpose of the club. The first meetings served as team building for our members and to find our first officer position, our Club President.  In each meeting we had a team building activity, a discussion about the advisor’s journey in Math, and advisement on the upcoming semesters.  Our biggest achievement that semester was that some of our members attended the Catch the Next Transfer Motivational Conference in Austin, Texas.  The club closed for the summer with 18 members.

Today

Fall 2023 has been the most successful semester yet. The club group chat has 35 members with about 15 active members that attend most meetings.  The club has added more officers to the rankings: they have three social media managers, a Vice President and a new advisor.  The club has a Facebook page and a very active Instagram account (@girlsdiscoveringmath_stc).  The club has conducted some major events this semester including a movie day, where they showed the movie Hidden Figures and discussed the true story it was based on.  They also had their first installment in a series titled “Journeys in STEM” where they featured different professionals and how they became STEM majors.  The first presenter was Matea Vazquez, South Texas College Math Faculty and electrical engineer.  Her inspiring story coming from parents who didn’t know how to read, to becoming an electrical engineer and later math faculty was the motivation a lot of the students need.  The members have just completed a successful Food Drive to benefit the local soup kitchen in Rio Grande City, Casa Esperanza.  In the coming weeks, they will be having an event titled “Study Date” where they will meet to study for upcoming final exams. They will work with the advisors and Center for Learning Excellence tutors to aid students.  

Future Plans

For next semester, the plan is to continue with the series “Journeys in STEM” and expand on the “Study Date” event to have one each month.  The club has learned that it can help to expose club members to math opportunities, but also, serves as a resource to help students through their math struggles.  The generosity of club members has also inspired the club to explore more donation drive opportunities for the coming semester.

The original plan was to have a club in each of the three campuses of South Texas College.  For next semester, the hope is to start the expansion and have a club in another campus.