Navigating the transition from high school to university with its intensive course loads and higher expectations felt really lonely for Aanya Gandhi. Setting out to change that, Gandhi began with a simple hello to the people sitting beside her in class.

That small gesture led the Bachelor of Science student, who wants to be an optometrist one day, in a direction she never expected.  

“I connected with this group of women who understood and motivated each other, and stayed together through all of our classes. It meant so much to me,” she says. 

So much, in fact, that she created a student-led group called the MacEwan FemStem Club in November 2024 to help other women and girls in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) find community, support and mentorship. 

“In a world where being a woman in STEM can feel isolated and experience inequalities in salaries, treatment and education, I want women who are students in every field of science – from nursing to computer science to environmental science – to build each other up, feel elevated and like they always have someone to lean on,” says Gandhi. 

Looking back over the MacEwan FemStem Club’s first short year, and the incredible response it has received from MacEwan students, Gandhi is blown away. When she arrived to set up for the club’s first general meeting and found 70 people in the room, she thought she was in the wrong place.

“Today we have nearly 200 members and over 1,000 Instagram followers,” she says. “I’m proud that I took that leap to create a place where women can come together and share their experiences. I never thought I was capable of creating something like this. I think my first-year self would be smiling.”

These days, FemStem Club members are busy holding fundraising bake sales to support their work bringing science demonstrations to events on campus, like MathJAM and MacEwan’s Open House, and further afield at places like the TELUS World of Science – Edmonton. The group also hosts panel discussions and teams up with other science-focused student groups to co-host networking events like the MacEwan Sciences Gala where students can get insight and career guidance from professionals working in STEM. 

Gandhi’s advice for other first-year Bachelor of Science students is simple: “Join FemStem. Everyone is welcome!”