UWS STEMFEST 2025 :)))

I've always been really interested in STEM, namely biology. So, when my school sent out an email about the UWS StemFest for this year, it felt really heaven-sent.

United Women Singapore (UWS) is a Singaporean non-profit organisation, advocating for women's empowerment and gender equality. Even though we live in the 21st century with more progressive ideals, there are still stigmas and stereotypes deeply rooted in our society, that women should focus on their families. While there's nothing wrong with being a stay-at-home mom, I feel that its important to give women the choice to pursue their interests. I was really happy that this event was focused on women and empowering them to explore the world of STEM.

I was an hour late (oops) due to conflicting schedules, so I had to rush to Marina Bay from Toa Payoh after my tuition session with primary school students. I was immediately put into a speed-mentoring session with several other girls of various ages. I think there were two secondary one students and I felt really shocked because they already were so sure of what they're interested in in the future. There was another JC student, and a few university students in our group. There were two sharings I was present for, with the first from two women who worked at Microsoft, and the other was from a man working in cyber security and two people in finance. I especially liked the second session because one of the people in finance was really encouraging and she told me to find job shadowing opportunities. Even though I wasn't very interested in finance (at least for now), I could apply the lessons learnt. Thank you Miss Matina!

My workshop was by the Bank of America, where they taught us about stocks. I was a little apprehensive because I thought it was going to be another lecture but it was actually a game where we had to compete as teams to earn the most money through investing. My mom has been trying to get me into investing a lot, but this was really my first push into trying to learn how to invest. I'm going for a webinar this weekend so I hope I learn something!! (also I love the free bag and tumbler they gave)

The booths were all so interesting, I felt there wasn't a booth I didn't like. Even though I wasn't fully interested in what was there, at least I learnt that I'm not very interested in that path, but it still exists if I want to explore something else. I loved the Johnson & Johnson booth where I had to use those surgical tools. It took me a while to get the hang of it, but it was really fun. I am naturally a bit shy, but I managed to get out of my comfort zone and ask questions about what they want to do. I'm also getting back into programming and coding, because there was a videogame that they allowed us to try, and they told me about the science behind it. I used to want to get into videogame developing when I was younger, and now that I know about how I can go about it, I'm thinking of trying to develop my own simple game in my own free time. Whether it will be good is a bit unclear though (lol). There was also the career launchpad, and the lady I spoke to helped me better prepare for interviews and set up my LinkedIn.

Overall, I had a really fun time. The snacks provided were really good, and all the sharings were very insightful. I'll most likely be back next year :)