The Tartan

During fall break, eleven Carnegie Mellon students journeyed to Portland, Oregon to attend the national conference for Out in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (oSTEM), a non-profit professional group dedicated to creating strong professional networks among queer people in STEM. In their mission statement, their aim is to empower “LGBTQ+ people in STEM to succeed personally, academically, and professionally.”

Those who attended the event flew out on Thursday, Oct. 17, to gear up for three days of recruitment events, workshops about queer and professional life, and socializing with the over 1,000 students representing other universities at the conference.

Some of those who attended mentioned that this was the first time they had gone to a professional conference.

“You don’t feel like you have to mask at all, really,” said Logan Meritz, a fourth-year student studying Chemical Engineering, adding that professional conferences tend to be “pretty intimidating.”

Meritz said that an environment of completely open queerness made it much easier for her to talk to employers. She also said that she got a lot of value from the workshops and keynote speakers; she said her favorite was a presentation by Kihana Wilson, an internet personality who makes content about their life as a graduate student in astrophysics.

Jill Haguisan, a fourth-year student studying Mechanical Engineering, echoed this sentiment, saying that it was nice seeing people being “true to who they actually are.” She also noted that it was nice to see a greater diversity of companies and majors represented at the conference; there was a lot more recruitment in the fields of biotechnology and environment science than she was used to seeing at Carnegie Mellon’s career fairs, which she notes tend to skew toward aerospace and defense.

Haguisan recommended that others attend the event, saying the conference was a “self enriching experience, meeting all these people.” Haguisan noted that it was particularly enlightening speaking to students attending from schools that lack the “queer supportive” environment of Carnegie Mellon. 

Ella David, a fourth-year BXA student studying chemical engineering and viola performance added that her “favorite part of the conference is meeting people from other collegiate chapters.” David is the president of oSTEM, and this was her second time attending the conference.

“There are just not very many visible queer mentors to look up to,” she said, “so [there is] a need to build community.”