Eyes wide and gleaming with curiosity, young Yue Que sat on the wooden floor in her childhood home in China and closely observed the first wireless remote-controlled toy car given to her by her father.

Que inspects the controller, growing intrigued about the construction principles of the remote control and what allowed the vehicle to move.

She smiles as she reminisces one of the first memories that gradually pushed her to pursue science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields growing up.

“All my strong interest in science and technology comes from simplest life in my childhood,” Que said. “I think technology led development of an era and created more possibilities.”

Now, more than 10 years later, Que finds herself at El Camino College (ECC) as a Data Science major and the president of the Women in Technology (WIT) and Society of Women Engineers (SWE) clubs on campus after moving from China four years ago.

These clubs at ECC are tied to the international WIT and SWE organizations that aim to provide female students support, networks, resources and encouragement as they pursue male-dominated fields.

“At first, I wanted to join the club when I realized the scarcity of women in this field,” Que said. “Every time I attended my computer science classes and technology classes, there are very few female students.”

According to a report by SWE, in 2017, there were only 9.5% female freshmen with intentions to Major in Engineering, Math, Statistics, or Computer Science compared to the 27.9% of male students.

Que mentioned that witnessing the lack of women in STEM courses further motivated her to lead the WIT and SWE clubs starting in the spring 2021 semester to create more involved communities within female STEM majors especially during the isolation brought by COVID.

“The two clubs work together along with the Robotics club, and we have weekly meetings to watch educational videos and gain more friends to support each other,” Que said.

Victoria Martinez, the advisor for the WIT, SWE and Robotics clubs, is one of the individuals at ECC who continue to make efforts to provide female students in STEM majors with support and resources in the online educational setting.

Martinez was present during the College Night to promote the technology clubs with a smile behind her mask, and warmly encouraged visitors and prospective EC women in STEM students to persist in these fields.

“Other women are surprised that there are other women out there who are interested in engineering and interested in the tech field,” Martinez said. “These women needed a place and a time to be with each other and support each other.”

Before the pandemic, the technology clubs did tours and field trips to companies such as SpaceX, Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Northrop Grumman to get a first-hand look at the technological workplaces.

“It was a great chance for students to see the employees out there, and many of them are women, working in the field, working in the tech companies that [students] want to go to those areas as well,” Martinez said.

Due to the online learning environment, the clubs are making up for the in-person experiences by attending virtual SWE conferences and panels and having female speakers from professional technology areas speak about their fields.

“We also try to do videos and activities that keep the students interactive and engaged with each other, cause that’s the thing that they miss the most, was interacting with other people,” Martinez said.

Joshua Weitzel, Inter-club Council representative for the SWE and WIT clubs, said that he works closely with these teams to bring aid to the members whenever they need help in setting up these events.

“We also try to make sure that the members are doing good mentally, and their physical capabilities,” Weitzel said. “They could be overwhelmed with working or overwhelmed with classes.”

Weitzel said that a lot of the members are “busy, independent women” which at times make it difficult for them to handle the team despite being a small group of 20-30 members, yet they continue to push through by relying on each other.

“Que tries quite hard to do what she needs to get done for the clubs, and the other members are great individuals who try to come together,” Weitzel said.

WIT and SWE are looking for new members, and Weitzel states that it doesn’t matter what gender the student is as long as they are interested in technology and want to be in a welcoming community.

“Eventually, we are planning to have everything again in person,” Weitzel said. “We’re looking forward to women’s advancements in the technical fields.”

As women in STEM majors at ECC begin to lay the foundation for more professional knowledge in their areas, Que said that there are times when it is discouraging knowing that there is a vast amount of experiences still waiting to be discovered.

“But fortunately, I haven’t suffered the energy of being excluded because of my gender [in my major],” Que said. “But I want to say to the women who have encountered it that way, stick to what you insisted on and do it bravely.”