Published September 10, 2026
Mads is a rising high school senior with a strong passion for mathematics and STEM education. Since her freshman year, she has helped develop a tutoring program at her school, combining her love of learning with a commitment to helping others succeed. Mads is an active athlete who participates in swimming, volleyball, and soccer, and she volunteers regularly at her local VA hospital. Through her involvement in STEM, service, and leadership, she hopes to pursue studies in applied mathematics and physics while exploring a future in medicine.
Q1: Describe your motivation for joining mySTEM.
I started looking for resources on how to make sure that my impact was big enough and successful enough. mySTEM has had an amazing program that offered to both support me and provide funding to purchase resources for my tutoring program. So, I thought that it would be a cool experience.
Q2: Describe your mySTEM Action Plan in detail. How did you choose this particular topic in your project?
I really enjoy math, and I found the culture at my school sometimes difficult because they really want everyone to be successful. So, I really tried to take the most difficult path and take the most difficult classes, and I faced some barriers with teachers and the administration on that. And so, I really just want to change the culture of my school to allow anyone to shoot high and do their best.
As a freshman, I really struggled in my Honors Chemistry class. And what helped me out the most was a tutor, not just for conceptual help, but also for moral support and kind of just reminding me that mistakes are okay and mistakes mean that you’re getting better.
Then, sophomore year, I tutored Honors Chemistry and regular chemistry students as an AP Chemistry student. And then this year, my junior year, I wanted to find a way to make a bigger impact on my school and my school’s community. And I feel like a lot of people struggle with math. People decide, ‘I’m not a math person’ or ‘I don’t understand it,’ so I’m just not going to challenge myself. And I thought that a similar tutoring program to our chemistry program for math would be really helpful.
Q3: In what ways has your mySTEM mentor contributed to the development and successful completion of your Action Plan? What are some ways that you feel like mentors and other scholars were able to help you succeed?
I think that the biggest impact they had for me was reminding me that iterations are part of a successful execution. In the beginning, I found a resource that I really wanted to use, but it didn’t align with the funding plans for the school, and so Gina, the program coordinator, was super helpful and found an alternate resource for me.
She suggested many resources. She didn’t just find one; she suggested a lot, and we kind of problem-solved in that way. As for Emma, my mentor, she encouraged me to continue advertising. So, when not a lot of people were involved, she supported me in creating new flyers and things like that.
Q4: What measurable impact have you already observed as a result of your efforts? What are your aspirations for the future of your project?
This year, we had a solid team of, I would say, five tutors, and we as a community logged about 70 or 80 hours in preparation time, planning, and tutoring time altogether. And next year, I’m actually expanding the program to be schoolwide. The administration reached out to me and asked me to do that, so I’m really excited. I’ve held interviews for our tutors for next year, and it looks like we’re going to have a team of 13.
I’m excited to kind of reach a larger student body. This year, we didn’t have as much participation as I would have liked, but next year we’re going to try and serve all of the subjects at our school. So, we’ll serve more subjects and hopefully have better advertisement and encouragement from teachers and school counselors. And we’ll hopefully be able to make an even larger impact.
Q5: Do you believe that your participation in the mySTEM program has facilitated the growth of your STEM identity?
The most important thing that the STEM Action Center has done in terms of contributing to my STEM identity is showing me all of the different realms that STEM can be applied to. So, for example, hearing other people’s ideas and other people’s Action Plans reminded me that there are so many different ways to solve issues, grow participation, and encourage students to be involved.
