On a Christmas night, as I stood before a toy store holding my mom’s hand, I pointed my thumbs through my woolly mittens in a sharp rivalry of choice. I walked down the main aisle, and I noticed the two signs overhead: the right side showed images of boys drilling, shooting, and building while the left side showed images of girls feeding dolls, and dressing up as princesses. The right aisle attracted me, so I ran in and started rummaging through boxes of Legos. All of a sudden, a female employee came up to me and said, “The pretty barbie dolls are over there, sweetheart.” For a moment, I was in a state of perplexity. However, I disregarded her statement and continued searching through the pile and eventually ended up buying a huge LEGO mindstorm kit. This

memory is the earliest one I have of me and my Mom.

As I grew up, I started understanding what the employee meant and how gender stereotypes were affecting our communities. For this reason, I created my own international nonprofit organization called STEM All Stars to inspire and empower girls using STEM education and technology.

There are many people who have influenced what I am doing today and one of them was Congresswoman Barbara Comstock, the most recent recipient of the ARCS Eagle Award for STEM work.

This summer, I attended the 10th Congressional District Young Women Leadership Program, which was founded by Congresswoman Comstock. The program runs throughout the summer, giving middle and high school students throughout northern Virginia the opportunity to meet and interact with women who hold leadership roles in government, business, medicine, media relations, and other professions. On the first day of

the program, Congresswoman Comstock gave a wonderful speech about her beliefs. As a mom, lawyer, and politician, she has seen the unintentional bias towards women and her goal is to inspire the next generation of female leaders and bring awareness to the various professions available. It was an honor to attend the program because each day, I heard from many great people talking about their experiences, job opportunities, and I got a chance to meet other young talented women! The program has had a huge impact on how I perceive the world.

Her strong efforts to close the gender gap have also been paying off. The House has recently passed her legislation, the Inspiring the Next Space Pioneers, Innovators, Researchers, and Explorers (INSPIRE) Women

Act, which authorizes the NASA Administrator to encourage women and girls to study STEM fields, and to pursue careers that will further advance America’s space, science, and exploration efforts. She has also

cosponsored The STEM Education Act of 2015 and was a co patron of the Higher Education Act of 2011, both of which emphasize the need for STEM education. Congresswoman Comstock’s ideologies are driven towards

helping people who are in need and creating the next generation of future global leaders. Since being elected in 2009, she has been showing thousands of young women like me that girls can walk into the right aisle of a toy store and purchase a huge LEGO mindstorm kit. A vision and a direction is all it take to create a difference.

Sajni Vederey

Herndon