Michael Walsh

Using her own experience as a woman navigating the STEM field in high school and college, Corricelli wants to build a more welcoming environment for girls in West Hartford that she didn’t quite have when she was their age.

“In general our most underrepresented population is females,” Corricelli said. “Our most underrepresented population in computer science are Black, Indigenous, Latinx and Hispanic females. Anything I can do for female empowerment and to help students feel more welcome than I did, I want to do.”

The free program, designed by UConn’s Vergnano Institute of Inclusion, provided a day of educational and hands-on exercises. Thirty total sophomores participated at both Conard and Hall High School.

Among them was Sasha Belabe, a Conard student who is eager to make a splash in STEM.

“I knew I was going to do this,” Belabe said. “Right now I’m taking geometry and I’m really engaged in that class. I like the mathematics field. I’m thinking about going into STEM.”

Belabe proudly showed off creations the group had made during the morning portion of the conference, including a bath bomb and a badge that lights up.

“At first it wasn’t lighting up,” Belabe said. “It was so rigorous. When it lit up, I lit up. I’m really excited to go show my family. I’m really excited about this.”

After their lunch break, the group was going to tackle racism and activism in the STEM field. Those discussions, Belabe said, were very meaningful.

“It is important,” Belabe said. “Girls think it might be something only guys do or a men’s thing, so they don’t want to do computer science. But if they see a panel of women and they talk about what they do in computer science, women would be more inclined to go into it.”

Corricelli said she hoped that by bringing the program to West Hartford, some students might see STEM as a viable path for them.

“We are always looking for more females to sign up. It’s a sad state of affairs,” Corricelli said. “We’ve got no shortage of problems in the country. We need more perspectives to solve those problems.”

Belabe said the problem is that field can be intimidating when you feel like an outsider. What helps, she added, was being inspired by other women who have broken through in the field.

“I feel that is scary,” Belabe said. “I feel like I won’t get as far or I won’t be as good as them. But someone has to overcome so other people can do it. There has to be the firsts, which can open the gate to a lot of other minority women joining.”

Aniyah Walker, another Conard student, said she participated in a similar STEM camp over the summer, so she was eager to join the conference.

“There aren’t a lot of minorities in STEM, but also not a lot of women in STEM,” Walker said. “I’ve always been into women empowerment and inclusion. It’s something that is slowly changing but there’s still a lot of work to be done.”

Alexandra Santana, also a Conard sophomore, said she’s possibly looking at taking an AP level computer science class at the school next year.

“I signed up to be a computer science ambassador here, and the reason why is because there’s not even a lot of Black women at this school, and especially in computer science,” Santana said. “I do really like computer science a lot.”

Corricelli, who has a 13-year-old daughter, said the day was all about opening doors to people that in the past have remained closed.

“We’ve got to get better,” Corricelli said. “Things are supposed to improve. Just like they did for me, things are supposed to improve for these girls. They shouldn’t have to work as hard as I did to be able to create these opportunities. It’s all about more perspectives. If you walk around with one eye closed, you’re only seeing half the world.”

Written by Michael Walsh