By By: Ashley Bergeron
Staff-Writer
Let’s meet some of our fellow students who are making an impact as women in STEM on campus.
Shreya Patel
Shreya Patel is a computer science major with a minor in mathematics. This is her last semester here, as she plans on graduating this year. Patel is involved on campus as an honors student, a math tutor and a math club member.
Patel has been interested in math since grade school. She also enjoys coding. Some languages she knows are Java, C++, C, Python and SCL. This influenced her to major in computer science.
Before coming to IU South Bend, Patel was a student at Ivy Tech. Her family moved to Elkhart from India. Her career goal is to work in the data science field, and both her major and minor will help her accomplish this goal. Some classes that she has taken that will help her are probability and statistics.
Sheila Le
Shelia Le is a fourth-year student majoring in informatics and integrated new media studies with a focus on video. She is planning on graduating in May 2024.
Le is involved on campus through the Honors Program and Student Government Association (SGA). She is a senator and part of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee, which focuses on making a campus a welcoming place for diverse students.
Le was born and raised in South Bend, Indiana. Her ethnicity is Vietnamese. She has a passion for traveling the world.
During the spring semester of 2022, Le was able to study abroad in South Korea since she is an IU South Bend student; she can also apply to IU Bloomington’s study abroad programs.
Le has always been drawn to STEM due to the creativity and problem-solving aspects of it. She majored in it because she has a passion for technology and its impact on society.
Le wants to purpose a career in User Experience (UX) Design. Her goal is to create digital experiences that are functional but also intuitive and enjoyable for users.
Some of the things that Le has accomplished are developing video projects, websites and applications. Some programming languages she knows are Java, Javascript, and HTML/CSS.
Emilee Edmonds
Emilee Edmonds is a junior double majoring in physics and mathematics and minoring in earth and space science. She grew up in Goshen. Due to the pandemic, she ended up graduating high school two years earlier.
Edmonds is involved on campus as she is the president and intern of the Honors Program. She is also the co-president of the physics club and the chief ambassador to the Student Government Association.
Edmonds majored in physics because she always had an interest in it. She then decided to also major in mathematics, as she was running out of required math courses, which made her sad. She said she isn’t completely sure of what she wants to do, but she is thinking of going to graduate school for physics.
Edmonds has done three research projects throughout her time here at IU South Bend in the subjects of Nuclear Physics (in collaboration with the Institute for Structure and Nuclear Astrophysics lab at Notre Dame), Astrophysics (measuring exoplanet transits using the observatory at Northside) and Meteorology (working to build a system of weather stations that include local high schools).
Rose Inchauregui
Rose Inchauregui is a senior majoring in biological sciences with a minor in chemistry. She has tutored several science classes, including BIO-L 101, BIO-L 102, molecular biology and organic chemistry.
Inchauregui is from Goshen. She was heavily involved with her high school’s French club as the president, and she was a part of the International Baccalaureate (IB) program. Shen received an IB diploma, which she said was challenging but reassured her that she wanted to be a part of his field.
There are so many mysteries of the world that Inchauregui has always been curious about.
“Figuring out how life works is not only intriguing but also can lead to discoveries on how we can better not only our own lives but the lives of other creatures on this planet as well,” Inchauregui said about why she decided to major in STEM.
Inchauregui has done three research projects: two sponsored by the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) and one sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF). She has worked in biochemistry, ecology and microbiology. She is currently having a microbiology peer-reviewed paper submitted to a journal. In 2022, Inchauregui was awarded a Smart Fellowship for her independent research on stomata in an ecology course. She has presented her research four times across Indiana.
Inchauregui plans to get into the food industry and research ways to improve animal immunology by analyzing bacteria that may have detrimental effects to them.
Elizabeth Layman
Elizabeth Layman is a senior majoring in clinical laboratory science, and she is in her second year as a chemistry major.
Layman currently lives in Granger, but she grew up in Kouts, Indiana.
Layman was in the United States Army Reserves for ten years. She first worked as a combat medic with the 932nd Forward Surgical Team. Then she worked as a nurse with the 425th Minimal Care Detachment. She also worked as a nurse for over ten years, mainly in acute care settings and hospice.
Prior to coming to IU South Bend, Layman went to Ivy Tech getting an associate’s degree in medical laboratory technology.
Layman was originally planning on only majoring in clinical laboratory science until she took general chemistry. She said she had so much fun that she decided to major in chemistry. She isn’t sure what chemistry field she wants to pursue, but she is interested in nuclear chemistry. She is also contemplating going to graduate school for chemistry.
