STEM Goes Red event inspires girls to study science, engineering

LOWER MANHATTAN — Bipasha Ray is not your typical 15-year-old. The 10th grader from Massachusetts and her older sister, Meghna, spend summers in India and Nepal, trying to teach others about heart health and helping diagnose rural children with rheumatic heart disease.

“By telling them they have the disease, we can get penicillin for the treatment they need,” the 15-year-old told PIX11 News.

The Ray sisters were brought to New York by the American Heart Association to inspire other high school girls to follow in their footsteps in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and math.

More than 100 local high school girls participated in Friday's STEM Goes Red event to encourage young women to go into the sciences.

“These are very capable young women who we want to encourage to go into STEM fields," Joanne Dunbar, Co-Chair of Go Red For Women, told PIX11.

The students at the event also attended a speed mentoring session where they got to talk to leaders in the fields of science and technology.

For 17-year-old Olivia Odigie of Yonkers, this event moved her one step closer to her dream of becoming a doctor.

“I feel I am now stronger and can pursue my dream,” Odigie, a Junior at Harlem Children’s Zone Promise Academy, said.

One more reason for these women to go into the stem professions? While women make up only a quarter of the workforce, they make 33% more when they work in these fields.