By: Megan Saul

Culture Editor

At Los Gatos High School, there are over 110 clubs focused on academics, volunteering, and hobbies. One of the academic clubs is the G.L.O.W Club run by co-presidents junior Alena Narkaitis and junior Hailey Jang and vice-president junior Karis Chan. The name of this club stands for Girls’ Learning Opportunities in Women’s Stem. 

G.L.O.W.’s mission is to foster a passion for STEM at LGHS and connect with younger students in the community. The club does this by holding open lessons on STEM topics after school in Ms. Lalitha Maruvada’s room. During these classes, members of the club focus on teaching three specific branches of the STEM field: math, computer science, and science; this allows club members to focus on furthering their own and others’ interests in a specific field of study about which they are passionate. Narkaitis leads the computer science branch; Jang leads the math section; and Carys teaches science. Narkaitis said, “We craft the materials ourselves and present it in a fun and engaging way to middle and elementary schoolers.” Although the club members hope to improve the students’ skills in these subjects, they also aim to showcase how young women can change the world and make it a better place. Through connecting with the Rotary Club of Los Gatos, they are engaging students from Blossom Hill Elementary School and Raymond J. Fisher Middle School.

Besides the STEM and academic aspects of G.L.O.W., educating and spending time with young girls is another important aspect of the club. Narkaitis said, “My favorite part of the club is working with the children because I have a little brother with whom I’m unable to help with his studies because he lives in another country. I just like helping kids, especially women to foster their interests because that is something I didn’t have while growing up.”

Narkaitis decided to found this club after noticing bias against women in the STEM field. She said, “Even though we live in an environment where a lot of people are in technology, because it’s Silicon Valley, there is still a lot of bias against women. I felt it personally when I told people from my family and strangers what I was doing and many asked why I am doing this because I’m a girl. They said, ‘you’re a girl, you don’t need to do STEM.’” She hopes thaGt through her club she can foster an interest in science for girls within our community and help challenge the stigma against women in the STEM field.

So far, G.L.O.W. has hosted one meeting to introduce the club to the younger students. Meetings are held every other week after school and will continue throughout the remainder of the school year. If you are interested in participating in this club, there are plentiful tasks, including making materials for lessons and volunteering opportunities to teach the lessons. In the future and as the year progresses, the G.L.O.W. Club hopes to encourage more students to attend their meetings and engage more schools in their lessons.