By Isaac Price
On Wednesday, March 2, the Associated Students of Whitworth (ASWU) assembly voted to approve a new club charter called Minorities in STEM following several weeks of discussion. First-year student Luis Pablo Carrera-Lara says he organized the club after seeing a need to increase minority representation in the pre-med field.
“It felt like the more I interacted with students here, not only as a minority but with the culture as a whole, it was a bit of a culture shock being a minority here,” said Carrera-Lara.
With this club, Carrera hopes to provide support to other minority students studying STEM experiencing culture shock.
“Pre-med culture is already toxic and cut-and-dry, on top of being an isolating experience for minorities… With this club, we wanted to tackle that culture head-on and provide that network of support for each other,” Carrera-Lara said.
When the club was first introduced to assembly on Feb. 23, it was originally presented as a Minorities in Pre-Med club. However, concerns were raised about the club’s similarity to the already established pre-med club and the implications that would have for the future, according to the minutes from that meeting.
Current club coordinator Jamie Copeland believed the concerns were two-fold:
“We brought them in to be another pre-med club, but ASWU was concerned that we would have too many clubs on campus that were super similar, as well as create a white pre-med club and a minority pre-med club on campus. That was never our goal, or the club’s goal,” Copeland said.
In response, Luis and his leadership were asked to consider amending the club to include all of STEM and still retain the support system for minorities. According to Copeland, the club leadership was receptive and the change was made.
“By opening it up to STEM, that allows them to bring in cool speakers, and they also want to collaborate with the pre-med club and fully support each other by working together,” Copeland said.
The following Wednesday, March 2, ASWU assembly members were presented with the newly expanded Minorities in STEM club proposal and voted to approve it. The same mission to reach minorities in the pre-med track at Whitworth will now expand to minority students across all of STEM.
“We want it to be an open network for minorities in general,” Carrera-Lara said.
“Some of our goals are addressing inequalities based on sexual orientation, socioeconomic status and barriers based on that. What we’re trying to build is bringing in guest speakers of minority backgrounds, to give everyone the idea that there’s a place for them. With these people’s experiences, people can see how they did it, and see if it helps them,” Carrera-Lara continued.
Financial director Abby Douglas believed extending the club to all of STEM was important for the future of both clubs and ASWU.
“One thing that I really value is being consistent; once it applies to one person or one club, it should apply to all, and vice versa. . . . I raised the concern because if we pass one club with a majority overlapping club and mission, we are saying we can do that every time,” Douglas said.
“ASWU allows people, not on their own dime, to be able to accomplish great things,” Douglas said. Preserving two distinct club missions and purposes will allow this to continue.
To Copeland, what stands out about this club is the passion and dedication of the members.
“Luis, the president, had really done work as a freshman to find something that was lacking in our community… They are really putting in a lot of work at the beginning, and don’t want to be a club just to be a club, but to put on a lot of fun events that will be beneficial to their peers,” Copeland said.
The club’s first event is set to happen April 3, with a speaker approved as of March 24, according to ASWU assembly meeting minutes. Sophia Chakola, a WSU medical school student, will come in as a member of a larger panel from the school to talk about pre-med issues from a minority perspective. As the club continues to grow, Carrera says the objectives will expand to other areas in STEM, in accordance with the amended charter.
“This semester, we will be pre-med focused, . . . but moving forward, we will try to broaden that perspective to get engineers and other speakers people want to hear from to come in and visit,” Carrera said.
To learn more about the Minorities in STEM club, contact Luis Carrera-Lara at lcarrera-lara25@my.whitworth.edu.