Women are generally regarded as underrepresented in the world of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, but juniors Shannen Barrameda and Leslie Sim are looking to change that.

With academic backgrounds that focus on STEM fields, both were recipients of the National Center for Women and Information Technology’s Affiliate Awards for the Los Angeles/Orange County Metro Region.

NCWIT is an organization dedicated to promoting gender equality in STEM fields by offering scholarships and awards for girls considering pursuing science or engineering for their future careers.

By earning the award, both are qualified to be members of the NCWIT community. Both Barrameda and Sim had known that they would like to pursue STEM careers since they were young.

Sim initially enjoyed biology but recently found a passion for physics and computers, while Barrameda started out liking math but transitioned to computers.

“I kind of knew that I wanted to get into STEM, because a lot of people have this desire to do math, and I think that came to me at a young age, but ultimately, I want to incorporate [computer science] into entrepreneurship or business in general, but I do want to major in computer science,” Barrameda said.

Sim and Barrameda are officers in the Brahma Tech Academy; Sim is vice president of Internal Affairs and Barrameda is secretary.

In September 2015, Brahma Tech advisor Alina Gallardo sent an email to all Brahma Tech members, encouraging females to apply for the NCWIT award for Aspirations in Computing Honors.

Previously, Sim earned the Affiliate Runner Up Award from NCWIT. This year, she was able to win the actual award, an achievement she is proud of.

“I had to fill out an application and tell [NCWIT] about myself and introduce myself to the NCWIT community,” Sim said. “I was really happy, because last year I got the Runner-Up Award, so basically it was like honorable mention, and this year I won, so it was definitely a big step up for me.”

Barrameda was influenced by the achievements of past Brahma Tech alumnae who had earned the award, such as Alice Jin, who is attending MIT, and Nicole Chen, who is attending UC Berkeley.

Jin was able to win the national level award, and Chen was chosen as a state winner for two years in a row from 2013-2015 and as a national runner-up.

Both Sim and Barrameda encourage students to take the opportunities offered them and say that students should not underestimate themselves.