Styled in STEM
Interviewer I Lauren Uliana
Click here to see the rest of the “Styled in Stem” photoshoot
Photographer | Dan Shea
As fashion students at Marist we tend to make ourselves an insular community. We get caught up in our aesthetic driven world and we don’t think of the rest of our student body. So, Libby Clark and I decided to spotlight our STEM peers, Luke Bruderer and Juliana Celentano, to get some insight into their lives.
Interviewee I Juliana Celentano
How were you encouraged to get into STEM?
I don’t remember a specific moment that drew me towards STEM, but I’ve always felt a passion for science. I find myself eager and fascinated to learn about all aspects of the human body. I look forward to pursuing nursing after graduating from Marist.
What is something you learned in STEM that has affected your world view?
When learning about the human body, I found it important to understand the body as an interconnected system, not an entity of different parts. It changed my perspective on how to take care of myself. One issue can have an impact on different systems in your body. For instance, stress not only impacts your mental health but also your physical health as well.
Do you think being a woman has affected the way you interact with males in a STEM setting?
Personally, being a woman has not impacted my interaction with males. I approach an interaction with a classmate the same, regardless of their gender. I always strive to put my best foot forward and collaborate with others.
What's your STEM uniform?- what are you wearing to class everyday?
When I’m not in a lab coat for some of my classes, my go-to is a matching sweat set. It’s simple and comfortable, while still feeling put together.
What is the best advice you have gotten?
The best advice I have received is to prioritize self-care. If you don’t take care of yourself, how can you help others?
Interviewee I Luke Bruderer
How were you encouraged to get into STEM?
I would argue that it’s a combination of privilege and luck: over the course of my entire education, my teachers/professors made me love to learn. That’s not to say that I also had some very very terrible professors, because I most definitely did. With where I want to go in STEM (i.e., neurochemical research), all I am going to do is learn, and to me that’s my dream. It sucks to hear when people don’t like school since education is, in my opinion, one of our most enjoyable rights as humans. It’s also understandable because, like any other activity, many bad experiences can turn you off from it, but I digress. So “how” was I moved to go into STEM? In a sense, by all of them. I think our most interesting questions about the world and how we as people work lie in STEM.
What is something you learned in STEM that has affected your world view?
Definitely empathy. STEM is such a broad category that it does the separate areas of science, technology, engineering, (art if STEAM), and math a huge disservice. In each of those areas, there are triple digit amount of subjects that even have their own specialties. Personally, I want to study how the brain works, but there are so many ways to do that. I can ask thousands of questions on just one part of a part of a part of the subject. However, I don’t think my interest is any more important than someone who loves to tell a story through specific medium of art or someone that cares so deeply about our judicial system that they want to become a lawyer or judge. All of which is to say, I think that everyone has a hyper-specific passion that gets refined over time, and the love for the subject becomes the driving force behind what they do. To go back to empathy: I may not understand why someone else’s obscure passion may be so interesting to them, but I can feel exactly how they feel when they talk about it. Me and my peer’s passions may be different, but us feeling passionate is the same. With that notion, we can step into each other’s shoes and understand that, at the end of the day, we are both here for the same reason, even if we go separate directions after.
As a man do you think women are treated differently within STEM spaces?
Women are definitely treated differently. Not only in STEM, but in any workforce, even those dominated by women. That’s not to say that it hasn’t gotten better. What’s crazy and incredibly sad to think about is less than 50 years ago women couldn’t become professors or doctors. It was incredibly rare for women to go through graduate school at that time, and so many huge scientific research achievements and Nobel prizes were given to their male co-workers or husbands. So it’s definitely “improved,” but it definitely is not at all equal yet. But it’s not just women who are treated differently: POC, LBTQIA+, and all other minority groups are treated differently. It’s embarrassing that any scientist would judge someone’s work based on their skin color, gender, sexuality, or ethnicity and not on the actual work. Scientists created the scientific method because they knew that humans inherently have bias. Not only in general, but also in the answer that they want to find when conducting research. So not only is it hard to rise through positions to be able to conduct research, but it’s also difficult for your research to be reviewed because of stupid white men. I hope it gets better. It was getting better. But defunding the organizations that provide incredible opportunities to people regresses all progress. Not only for minority groups, but even for the future of education, research, and STEM.
What's your STEM uniform?- what are you wearing to class everyday?
I think it’s definitely very subjective to everyone what they like to wear, of course. I don’t there’s a “STEM uniform” that I wear other than the required garments when in lab (i.e., closed toed shoes, pants/sweats, a top that covers as much skin as possible, hair up, lab coat/protection on, and eye goggles/protection on.) But outside of lab, I dress the same going to class as I do going out or doing an extracurricular activity. For me, I’ve definitely been dressing more “preppy” over the years since I came to college, and in a way I’m starting to find my own sense of style as most other people my age (all of which was probably influenced by my fashion design girlfriend.) I will say that the style is very closely aligned with education, and I feel like it suits me, but I wouldn’t say that I dress preppy because of STEM. Also, that’s not to say that I definitely have my sweats and large sweater days, cuz those sometimes are the best.
What is the best advice you have gotten?
To never stop asking “why.”
