When it comes to any student that majors in the STEM field the biggest thing for these students is support. Recently, a student led organization called M.A.D scientist was formed
to do just that.
“M.A.D stands for minorities who are astonishingly driven scientist. It’s not just for science majors but its for all students who are interested in STEM. So anyone who is interested in excelling their career in science, technology, engineering and mathematics can join,” said Merilyn Palmer, a junior chemistry major and president of M.A.D. “It’s dedicated towards helping minority students find careers that they could get in the STEM field, helping them get internships [and] research opportunities… and just allowing them to have that community thats built to help them excel in their career.”
Palmer created it to have a community she felt was missing for all the STEM majors at Winthrop.
“So I see there are a lot of minority students who are interested in STEM. I wanted to seek out people who are like me in STEM and have people that I could look up to and reach out to that could give me help,” Palmer said. “I wanted to have a community. We have so many minority students who are in this field. I want to have the group of everyone that can come together to… work together and help each other be successful in life.”
Despite how new the organization is there are already new members that are a part of M.A.D.
“When I first found out about M.A.D it kinda reminded me of the Eagle STEM program like a minority based programs to help students get their Masters or Ph.D,” said Jomar Lewis, a sophomore biology major. “[I joined] just for the cohort [feeling] of it [and] the friendship [and] family aspect.”
As a way to be a part of the Rock Hill community, members from the organization recently performed a slime experiment with students at Oakdale Elementary.
“There are a lot of minority students who go there. [We were there to tell the young students] ‘we are people who are in STEM and you can grow up to become like us,’” Palmer said. “We wanted to mentor to them.”
Palmer hopes despite it being a new organization they can do more events for the Winthrop community.
“I definitely want to have more events on campus that cater to making STEM fun and how it relates to our everyday life,” she said.
Anyone is welcomed to join the organization as well.
“If anybody is willing to join you can join you don’t have to be a STEM major but if you are interested in any type of [STEM related activities] or you want some type of role in the organization you are welcome to join,” Palmer said.
M.A.D scientists meets every Wednesday at 7 p.m. in SIMS Room 219.
For more information follow their instagram at madscientistssc or email them at madscientists@winthrop.edu.
Photo courtesy of Merilyn Palmer
