By Dave Dahl
Students at a Springfield middle school got a dose of girl power Friday, as local native Siobhan Malany received a proclamation from the mayor and showed that girls can grow up to excel in STEM careers.
Malany’s experiment of the effects of microgravity on human muscle tissue has been chosen for the International Space Station.
Assuring that the door to the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields is open to all is something which has made progress, says Lincoln Magnet School teacher Layne Zimmers.
“We have evolved,” Zimmers tells WJBC News. “We have taken the time in all of our grade levels, pre-K through high school, to make sure that girls have opportunities to not only take challenging classes but also to have outside the classroom (experiences) with different clubs, community access to different organizations, so, yes, I would say it is improving.”
Malany credits a Springfield High School teacher with getting her onto her career path as a scientist.
“Mrs. Mary Jackson was there to encourage me to continue in chemistry,” a subject Malany did not do well in as a sophomore. “I wasn’t planning on continuing in chemistry, and she actually said to me, if you do not take my class as a junior, I will be very upset with you. I did not want to upset her, so I took chemistry, and that was that.”
Malany, now based in Florida, says without Mrs. Jackson, she might be a writer today. Actually, Malany is a published author, too, with her debut novel, Mehendi Tides, being published last year.
