As her heart starts beating louder and louder, girls trickle into the room extinguishing her excited heart. As the anxious girls start crowding around the once-empty tables scrambling to find a seat, she realizes this had to have been her favorite meeting yet. As the board members get everything ready, the screen illuminates with the plan for the meeting. The room grew silent.
Waiting to hear the activity for today. Madeline Frank, senior GEMS board member, describes the one feeling she gets before every meeting.
GEMS has been an important part of Frank’s high school experience. She has been in GEMS for four years, but she is at the end of the long journey. Frank’s smile grows bigger when she says, “I think that is the only thing that I am going to miss. I love the community, I love the people and I just really love everything about GEMS.” This is not only Frank’s thought though.
As well as Frank, senior Mia Tsuchihashi GEMS board member, explains her past and expresses her growth through the years in GEMS: “I am disappointed to be leaving GEMS. I love GEMS and have been a part of it for four years. I have met so many great girls. When I was a freshman and a sophomore I was a little shy and it was awesome to meet girls who were passionate about the same things and were the kindest people ever and am just thankful for the experience.”
GEMS has been a program specifically for girls and has continued to inspire young girls and help them be more confident in themselves.
Out of the seven board members, four are seniors and will be leaving the care of GEMS up to the new board members and the existing board members.
Addison Farrell, Junior GEMS board member explains qualities that are being looked for to fill these shoes: “Being passionate and being open to meeting new people as well as being someone who fosters a community and wants to make homestead and GEMS overall a better place.”
As Tsuchihashi has been in GEMS for four years now she has grown to love this community and has helped her develop amazing skills. “It has widened my community at Homestead and we have such great events where we can interact with STEM speakers that we bring in. I have found some great friends and I love being a part of it.”
Frank has been in GEMS all through high school. She states. “I hope GEMS continues to be a club. membership goes up and down every year and then the next year it’s like oh where is everyone? Which causes us to get super nervous and we try hard to get as many people involved. All of us love it so much and hope it continues to be. Usually, it will, but I really hope it does.”
Frank concludes by saying,”I love being a part of gems. It is probably one of my favorite parts of high school. I have met so many amazing people. And my now closest friends. But it also has just given me a lot of confidence and skills to talk to people and be able to talk to teachers and administrators and a lot more skills that I have from being in GEMS that I probably would not have.”
