When Mikayla Roddam began exploring the world of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) in grade six, she was one of three girls in a class of about 30 students.

While her interest in STEM has earned the grade 12 G.P. Vanier student admission to the Bachelor of Applied Science/Mechatronics and Robotics program at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., her passion for encouraging more women into the field has also grown.

For her graduating capstone project (a project that allows each student to showcase and demonstrate their learning of a career-oriented area of interest in a meaningful project), Roddam reflected on the fact that STEM is traditionally male-dominated and wanted more women to explore the field.

"I wanted to make a program that was run by other girls that are younger so that it's more relatable, to get more girls into STEM."

Planning for her project began in September, and she brought the idea forward to her school to host a one-day event for grade six and seven students at Queeneesh Elementary in Courtenay. In early December, with the help of North Island College (who lent kits for the students), Roddam presented a mini-lesson and allowed the students to do five different STEM activities throughout the day.

"(The students) were all super engaged. They seemed to really like it, and there were a lot of kids coming by and noting 'I wish I could do this,' " she added. "I'm definitely interested in running more in the future in the Valley before I go off to university."

Roddam said throughout her experience in STEM, she has seen many girls not want to join or dismiss the idea before even knowing exactly what the field encompasses. 

"I see a lot say: 'oh, that's not really my thing, I'll just let other people do that. But when they come out and see it they see how cool it is, and it gets them interested. I think a lot of people think of STEM and think you have to be really good at math, and that's the only thing that matters. But it really isn't. There's a lot of different skill sets that are used, especially in robotics.

And it's just finding those different passions and that I've found that has really helped a lot of people. It's just finding the one thing that they're really good at."

For Roddam, her 'lightbulb' moment into the world of STEM was in grade five, when she worked with robotics. She input code while building a robot and saw it move for the first time. From that one skill, her interest grew, and now she is looking at taking her next steps into the discipline, with a particular passion for mechatronics (a combination of mechanical engineering, electronics, and computer science).

"That really opens the door for a lot of career possibilities so you're not just stuck in one specific field - that's what interests me is having the opportunity to be able to have a lot of different options for a career."