Akhila Lankalapalli and STEM-HER:
The summer before her junior year, senior Akhila Lankalapalli (she/her) joined STEM-HER, a nonprofit organization that aims to uplift high school girls in STEM and help kids develop an early interest in STEM. The female-led organization, founded by Juanita High School senior Nancy Zou, creates hands-on learning kits for children and distributes them through science fairs and STEM workshops.
“The kits are little science experiments. So some include plant fertilizations, one like a balloon rocket and things like that,” Lankalapalli said. “And they’re based for elementary schoolers, so it’s super easy. When we host fairs — like we held one at Woodmoor Elementary last year and Seattle Children’s Museum — we would conduct experiments with (the kids).”
Lankalapalli initially joined STEM-HER as its PR Manager after meeting Zou through Model UN and badminton. Ultimately, her overall interest in marketing and business convinced her to join.
“It was a great way to also boost my application, because I am a business major, so having more marketing or business-related roles was really, really beneficial for me.” Lankalapalli said. “But over time, it started to mean so much more than just a title, because here I was, embracing STEM and I want a double major in technology as well. So, being able to open these doors to other kids in my community was really rewarding as well.”
Now, STEM-HER’s community has grown to nine chapters across Washington, Florida, Canada and Thailand. In total, they’ve distributed 247 kits, impacting 352 kids. After the expansion, Lankalapalli became the Global Outreach Manager and has been developing a STEM curriculum for clubs and future chapters. Despite the nonprofit’s current success, the beginning stages were tough for STEM-HER, particularly when it came to outreach.
“We were basically cold emailing, cold messaging, DM-ing on Instagram to random companies that were like, ‘Hey, we want to partner with you’ or, ‘Hey, would you guys be interested in starting your own chapter of STEM-HER?’” Lankalapalli said. “So that was really hard, because me and Nancy were trying to do outreach for so many different organizations, and we barely got any responses back.”
Despite the initial hardship, Lankalapalli said she’s accomplished her personal goal for STEM-HER, which was to attract more members. In the past year, she has seen students she recruited go on to create their own workshops and chapters.
“This is our goal, not just Nancy’s, or not just the organization’s,” Lankalapalli said. “It was really cool to see how everyone was just so passionate about this.”
If you’d like to learn more or get involved with STEM-HER, visit their Instagram, @stem.her, or their website, stem-her.net.
Kairui Cheng and Student Music Initiatives:
Senior Kairui Cheng (he/him) is the executive director for Student Music Initiatives, a nonprofit that raises money for charity through musical performances. SMI started in 2011, and by 2013, it was officially incorporated as a nonprofit. Cheng joined in his freshman year after learning about it from former drum major Benjamin Rasmussen of the class of 2022.
“I was quite intrigued by being a part of a nonprofit, and also I had the opportunity to play a lot of music and improve my own instrumentation skills,” Cheng said. “I met a lot of new people in SMI as well, and I definitely formed closer connections with them. And it just felt good to be a part of a cause.”
SMI holds regular performances throughout the year to raise money for the American Cancer Society and Feeding America. Last year, they donated a record-breaking $3,600 to the American Cancer Society after their annual Christmas Music for the Cure performance. As executive director, Cheng is responsible for helping SMI’s board of six Inglemoor students and three Bothell High School students reach consensus while planning events. Though he plans to step down from his role after high school, he intends to participate in a similar organization in college while watching SMI grow.
“If we’re talking about very long term, like 50 years ahead, I’d like to see SMI become a much larger organization, possibly even nationally, like some of the other organizations that we have, like DECA or TSA,” Cheng said.
SMI has around 100 members, most of whom are students from Inglemoor, Bothell and Mariner High School. However, despite the organization’s large membership, it is still difficult to organize and advertise events.
“Because we’re a nonprofit, we don’t have the resources that ASB provides, and we’ve had to acquire our own equipment — like for music events — like our own piano, bass, amps, like that electrical stuff,” Cheng said. “And we also have to rely on other forms of outreach, right? Word of mouth instead of through the usual GMI or posting flyers around school, since we’re not an ASB club, so it’s mainly been promotions on social media, as well as just having everyone spread the word.”
Cheng said that each performance is an opportunity to improve his jazz skills and grow as a saxophonist. In addition to SMI’s flagship Christmas Music for the Cure performance, he hopes to add more events with different music and themes this year.
“Everyone that I’ve met for SMI — they’re great people. They’re nice to hang out with, and obviously playing music with them is just an incredible experience that I hope to continue,” Cheng said. “And another aspect of SMI — raising money for a cause — just being part of that — it feels like you’re contributing and giving to the community.”
If you’d like to watch their Christmas Music for the Cure performances, they will perform at Alderwood Mall on Dec. 8, 14, 15, 21, 22 and 23.
