LIFE

Here at GL, we're *all* about celebrating and empowering girls, and our friends over at Star Stable love to celebrate with us. They've helped us find some awesome ladies in STEM careers (that's Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) who are putting their amaze talents to work. Check these ladies out!

Nomi Bontegard: 3D artist at Star Stable

image: @nomi.bontegard

Nomi Bontegard, 23, is a game artist at Star Stable (when she isn't also singing professionally and recording music!). As a 3D artist studying game development at Futuregames, Nomi makes horses and horse-related gaming tech, like modeling, texturing, rigging and animating, for Star Stable games.

"It's fantastic to work together with other game developers and combine our creativity," she says. "I am forever thankful to work with such an amazing team. It feels, just like they say—like a big family to be here."

Sreya Vangara and Madison Howard:

image contributed: Sreya Vangara

Sreya Vangara, a student at MIT, discovered her love of invention after attending after-school robotics camp.

"I thought it was so cool that I could come up with an idea in my head and then implement it in the robot, build it, code it, and then see it actually come alive in front of me," she says.

With the support of her high school science teachers, Sreya and her robotics team were able to create a smart wallet that helps those affected by blindness to sort their money.

"We were very oriented towards engineering for accessibility," she says. "We wanted to use our engineering to be able to help people with disabilities live more independent lives."

The design, which identifies exactly what type of change a person puts into it, helped Sreya and her team win an InvenTeam grant from the Lemelson-MIT program, and later, Microsoft's #MakeWhatsNext program helped them patent their device.

Sreya says collaboration in the heart of the STEM field. "We need everyone's perspectives to make the world a better place."

Madison Howard found her love of engineering during a mentor program in the fourth grade, and continued to study robotics in high school while also learning to invent through the same InvenTeams grant. She also later became a patent holder through Microsoft's #MakeWhatsNext program.

Madison found that her high school robotics team presented her with outlets to help her expand her knowledge of engineering.

Being a young woman in the male-dominated field of biometrics has its challenges. Madison remembers one competition where she says the panel of judges asked questions only of the boys on her team.

"Eventually, I spoke up and said, 'Well, they didn't build that, I did. You should be asking me those questions too.' And I think that really shocked them."

Audrey Wisch: Co-founder and CEO of Curious Cardinals

image contributed: Audrey Wisch

A student of history, education and gender and sexuality studies at Stanford University, Audrey co-founded Curious Cardinals to help K-12 students explore *all* kinds of passions. The program runs STEM classes like math, chemistry and even a course on women in STEM.

As a co-founder, Audrey organizes classes and hires teachers for the over 250 students enrolled in Curious Cardinals since its launch in June. And classes cover all sorts of topics—even outside of STEM—like theater, writing and history.

Audrey is also getting the chance to learn new skills as she works in a leadership role, like managing finances, exploring business expansions and working to develop an app for the program. She says these skills were originally outside of her field of study, but learning STEM skills has helped boost her confidence.

"As a girl, I was always lacking confidence in the STEM field. And I always say I wish I had a Curious Cardinals teacher or class, because I would have been working with a college student who would have given me the confidence to keep going," she says. 

"You can be your own pioneer and spearhead that track for yourself. Be a trailblazer if you can't find many more people to look to."

Kori Michelle: Founder and CEO of Kori Collections

image: @korikollections

At *just* nine years old, Kori Michelle is the CEO of her own Housten-based lipgloss company, Kori Kollections, an organic, handmade lipgloss brand. Kori is all about confidence, and she shares hers by creating lip glosses she knows girls everywhere would love.

As Kori says: "Remember, girls can do anything they put their minds to."

Elise Esquibel contributed reporting.

by Erin Sargent | 10/7/2020