She Founded A Club For Women In Engineering: Star Local Student

WALNUT CREEK, CA — Star Students are found in classrooms, on concert and theater stages and at debate lecterns, and out in the community doing good things to make life better for all of us.

Here at Patch, we've launched an initiative to help recognize Star Students, and we’re working to tell the stories of these outstanding kids to their neighbors.

This submission comes from Sharon Pinkstaff who nominated Mae-Lin, an 11th-grader in Walnut Creek.

Star local student’s name

Mae-Lin

Star local student’s home state

California

How do you know the star local student?

I am her mother.

Why do you believe the star local student should be recognized?

Mae-Lin should be recognized due to her excellence in academics, leadership, and community service. In addition to being a 4.5 GPA student at the Carondelet High School, the captain of the national award-winning De La Salle trap team, a three-year varsity tennis player, and a student club leader at school, Mae-Lin has been a member of the Teens and Parents Service Organization (TAPS) in Walnut Creek since June 2020. She regularly volunteers at local food banks, churches, and school community events. Mae-Lin has accumulated 535 volunteer service hours since freshman year and has been a recipient of the National President Service Award for the past three years. Mae-Lin’s volunteering journey began at the Giant Panda Research Base in Chengdu, China when she was a 6th-grader at the Foothill Middle School in Walnut Creek. Mae-Lin’s outstanding academic achievement led to an exemplary excellence award received from the California Mathematics Council and the California Department of Education in 2023 and a science award from the Science Department at Carondelet in 2022. Mae-Lin has camped and hiked at 30+ international, national, and state parks since childhood. As a matter of fact, the Contra Costa Timese Walnut Creek Journal featured a picture of Mae-Lin and her brother Hunter at the Haleakala National Park in Maui in 2008 when Mae-Lin was 2 years old.

What's one thing you want everyone to know about the star local student?

After learning about the prolonged under-representation of women in the engineering field combined with her strong interest in engineering, Mae-Lin founded a Society of Women Engineers (SWE) NEXT club at her all-girls high school to better prepare girls who are interested in the STEM or engineering field. The club holds mentoring sessions by female engineers and female engineering students from UC Berkeley and hosts activities to help build skills for girls to be successful in the STEM field. The club has 30+ members now and is outreaching to younger girls in elementary and middle schools to encourage and foster their interest in the STEM field. Mae-Lin has developed a hands-on science and engineering curriculum for the campers at Camp Carondelet based on what she has learned from her volunteer work at the UC Berkeley Lawrence of Science, her participation at the Hackathon at Carondelet and the Odyssey of the Mind competitions. Mae-Lin looks forward to implementing the curriculum with her team at the 2023 summer camp and continuing to encourage girls’ interest in STEM. Diversity and inclusion in the engineering profession require a strong and resilient pipeline that includes women and minorities starting at a young age. Mae-Lin is exhibiting exemplary leadership and commitment to helping build this pipeline.

Congratulations on your achievements, and all of our best wishes to you in the future, Mae-Lin!

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