{"id":12713,"date":"2023-11-30T17:29:14","date_gmt":"2023-11-30T17:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.golive.clarku.edu\/news\/2023\/11\/30\/shared-science-and-shared-experience\/"},"modified":"2025-05-19T09:27:29","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T13:27:29","slug":"shared-science-and-shared-experience","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2023\/11\/30\/shared-science-and-shared-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Shared science and shared experience"},"content":{"rendered":"\n            \n            <p class=\"intro news-subhead\">Latines in STEM club hopes to build community and inspire<\/p>\n            <p><html><body><\/p>\n Members of the Latines in STEM club in Professor Javier Tabima&#8217;s lab. Photo by Natalie Hoang &rsquo;25\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote right\"><\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I feel like it&#8217;s important in a field that&#8217;s so widely dominated by white people to have a space where you can study, where you can reach out, where you can ask questions without feeling like you&rsquo;re not enough.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><cite><\/cite>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<style>\r\n  .content > blockquote.pullquote,\r\n  .content > blockquote.pullquote p,\r\n  .content > .pullquote cite {\r\n    font-style: normal;\r\n  }\r\n  .content > blockquote.pullquote.tint {\r\n    background-color: #eaeaea;\r\n    border: 0;\r\n  }\r\n  .content > blockquote.pullquote p {\r\n  }\r\n  .content > blockquote.pullquote::before {\r\n    display: none;\r\n  }\r\n  .content > .pullquote cite {\r\n    display: block;\r\n    font-size: .75em;\r\n    font-weight: normal;\r\n    text-align: right;\r\n  }\r\n  @media all and (min-width: 650px) {\r\n\t.content > blockquote.pullquote.left,\r\n    .content > blockquote.pullquote.right {\r\n      \tclear: both;\r\n\t    max-width: 50%;\r\n      \ttext-align: left;\r\n\t}\r\n\t.content > blockquote.pullquote.left {\r\n      float: left;\r\n      margin: 10px 40px 40px 0;\r\n    }\r\n\t.content > blockquote.pullquote.right {\r\n      float: right;\r\n      margin: 10px 0 40px 40px;\r\n    }\r\n  }\r\n<\/style>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Across America, a gap exists between the number of Latine students who receive degrees and their white peers. Only 52% of Latine (also known as Latinx) &nbsp;students pursuing a four-year degree go on to graduate, compared to 65% of their non-Latine white peers, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/latino\/latino-college-completion-gap-widening-compared-white-students-rcna95105\" aria-label=\"news article\">NBC News<\/a>. Clark&rsquo;s Latines in STEM club is working to mitigate this trend by strengthening community bonds among Latine students in science, math, technology, and game design.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">When <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/departments\/biology\/\" aria-label=\"major in biology\">biology<\/a> major Carlos P&eacute;rez-Gazca &rsquo;25 was a first-year student, he was the only active member of Latines in STEM. Now, he&rsquo;s the club president and hopes to motivate other Clarkies to start Latine clubs in their disciplines.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">&ldquo;If other Latinx students hear about us,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;they may feel inspired to create their own club, their own &lsquo;Latines in&rsquo; something else.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_43486\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-43486\" style=\"width: 420px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium-large wp-image-43486\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023-Latines-Stem-Club-NH-00-16-420x280-2.jpg\" alt=\"student with Petri dish\" width=\"420\" height=\"280\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-43486\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Carlos P&eacute;rez-Gazca &rsquo;25 is president of Latines in STEM. Photo by Natalie Hoang &rsquo;25<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">P&eacute;rez-Gazca worked with Latines in STEM Vice President Darlene Polanco Molina &rsquo;26, a biology major in the Prehealth Advising Program, biology major Kacey Alc&aacute;ntara Reyes &rsquo;25, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/departments\/chemistry\/\" aria-label=\"major in chemistry\">chemistry<\/a> major Nicole Lalangui Ponce &rsquo;26 to bring new energy to the club after noticing that STEM-majoring Latine students desired a place to connect.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Polanco Molina says that the necessity of the club comes from its status as a safe space.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">&ldquo;I feel like it&#8217;s important in a field that&#8217;s so widely dominated by white people to have a space where you can study, where you can reach out, where you can ask questions without feeling like you&rsquo;re not enough,&rdquo; she says.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Polanco Molina moved to the United States fewer than ten years ago. She didn&rsquo;t speak English and believes that an affinity club would&rsquo;ve greatly helped her when she arrived. Latines in STEM feels like &ldquo;a steppingstone toward my future path in medicine as a Latina,&rdquo; and she hopes that other Latine students will be able to take advantage of that as well.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_43485\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-43485\" style=\"width: 420px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium-large wp-image-43485\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023-Latines-Stem-Club-NH-00-8-420x280-2.jpg\" alt=\"student in science lab\" width=\"420\" height=\"280\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-43485\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Members of the Latines in STEM club in Professor Javier Tabima&#8217;s lab. Photo by Natalie Hoang &rsquo;25<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">&ldquo;It&#8217;s hard being a Latina student in a STEM field, feeling underrepresented, feeling like there aren&#8217;t opportunities for you, or like you have to work harder for certain opportunities,&rdquo; Alc&aacute;ntara Reyes says. &ldquo;There&#8217;s a lot of value in being in a space with people who share your experiences.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Current club members mainly major in biology and chemistry, but the group anticipates engaging with peers across STEM disciplines such as science, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/academics\/undergraduate\/programs\/majors-minors\/mathematics\/\" aria-label=\"major in math\">math<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/academics\/undergraduate\/programs\/majors-minors\/computer-science\/\" aria-label=\"major in computer science\">computer science<\/a>. P&eacute;rez-Gazca plans to call on the colleagues of biology Professor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/faculty\/profiles\/javier-tabima-restrepo\/\" aria-label=\"Javier Tabima bio\">Javier Tabima<\/a>, the club&rsquo;s sponsor, to be guest speakers. The group also wants to coordinate activities to help STEM students diversify their interests.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">&ldquo;Our service to the community is to make people understand that they can do this,&rdquo; says Tabima. &ldquo;We have the privilege of doing science, which is something that not a lot of people can do.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">P&eacute;rez-Gazca and Alc&aacute;ntara Reyes say running the club has taught them that they can&rsquo;t lose motivation &mdash; and has reinforced that STEM students are busy, they add with a laugh. Knowing the importance of the club to the Latine community at Clark is a huge motivating factor for them.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">&ldquo;We&#8217;re Latinos in higher education pursuing a degree and trying to increase the percentage who graduate,&rdquo; says Alc&aacute;ntara Reyes. &ldquo;I think that&rsquo;s really important.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/cu.latineinstem\/\" aria-label=\"instagram account\">their Instagram<\/a> for updates on meetings and gatherings.<\/p>\n<div class=\"is-layout-flex wp-container-7 wp-block-columns no-gap photo-row\">\n<div class=\"is-layout-flow wp-block-column\" style=\"flex-basis: 50%\">\n<figure id=\"attachment_43484\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-43484\" style=\"width: 420px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-43484 size-medium-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023-Latines-Stem-Club-NH-00-23-420x280-2.jpg\" alt=\"students in science lab\" width=\"420\" height=\"280\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-43484\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Professor Javier Tabima works with members of the Latines in STEM club. Photo by Natalie Hoang &rsquo;25<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"is-layout-flow wp-block-column\" style=\"flex-basis: 50%\">\n<figure id=\"attachment_43483\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-43483\" style=\"width: 420px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium-large wp-image-43483\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023-Latines-Stem-Club-NH-00-30-420x280-2.jpg\" alt=\"group shot of four students\" width=\"420\" height=\"280\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-43483\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Members of the Latines in STEM club. Photo by Natalie Hoang &rsquo;25<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/body><\/html><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Latines in STEM club hopes to build community and inspire<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12714,"template":"","meta":{"story_color":"#525250","story_headerImg":12714,"section_label":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[223,227],"displayed_author":[228],"featured":[],"topic":[243,244,259,148,220,300,221,163,119,121],"class_list":["post-12713","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clark-community","category-science-technology","displayed_author-abbie-hart-25","topic-biochemistry-and-molecular-biology","topic-biology","topic-chemistry","topic-community","topic-major-in-biochemistry-and-molecular-biology","topic-major-in-biology","topic-major-in-chemistry","topic-sciences","topic-student-life","topic-undergraduate-students"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Shared science and shared experience | ClarkU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2023\/11\/30\/shared-science-and-shared-experience\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shared science and shared experience\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Latines in STEM club hopes to build community and inspire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2023\/11\/30\/shared-science-and-shared-experience\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ClarkU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-19T13:27:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023-Latines-Stem-Club-NH-00-18-scaled-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/2023\\\/11\\\/30\\\/shared-science-and-shared-experience\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/2023\\\/11\\\/30\\\/shared-science-and-shared-experience\\\/\",\"name\":\"Shared science and shared experience | ClarkU News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/2023\\\/11\\\/30\\\/shared-science-and-shared-experience\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/2023\\\/11\\\/30\\\/shared-science-and-shared-experience\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/37\\\/2023-Latines-Stem-Club-NH-00-18-scaled-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-30T17:29:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-19T13:27:29+00:00\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/2023\\\/11\\\/30\\\/shared-science-and-shared-experience\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/2023\\\/11\\\/30\\\/shared-science-and-shared-experience\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/37\\\/2023-Latines-Stem-Club-NH-00-18-scaled-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/37\\\/2023-Latines-Stem-Club-NH-00-18-scaled-1.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707,\"caption\":\"Members of the Latines in STEM club in Professor Javier Tabima&#039;s lab. 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