Student influencer Megan Volkening encourages students to get involved in STEM
One of the Seven Social Standards that The Social Institute believes in is: Finding Your Influencers. This means surrounding yourself with positive role models who support you and encourage you to play to your core. To help students find these positive and credible influences, we began our Student Influencer Program. Each week we select a different student to take over our Instagram and highlight how they act as a positive influence and inspiration in their communities.
This week, we are excited to introduce Megan Volkening. Megan is a senior at Greendale High School located in Greendale, Wisconsin. She is the captain and founder of her school’s FIRST Robotics program. After founding the program, Megan led hundreds of hours of outreach initiatives to help her team share STEM with almost 50,000 people! FIRST Robotics is a huge passion of Megan’s and she said it taught her important life skills including technical and soft skills, such as public speaking, time management, leadership, and organization. She has met with her Senators and Representatives many times, advocating for increased funding for STEM and robotics programs. Additionally, Megan uses social media as a powerful tool to create change. One of her favorite outreach initiatives was hosting a “Women in STEM” Webinar with some of her teammates to encourage young girls to pursue STEM careers. They had participants from across the world and speakers from NASA, SpaceX, Qualcomm and NIST.
Recently, we interviewed Megan to learn more about her and how social media impacts her life. Here is what she had to say:
What do you value about yourself or others?
One of the most important things I value in both myself and others is being able to work well with other people. My years in robotics have taught me that many tasks are near-impossible to do alone, but with the help of others they can be very manageable. I never would be able to build the robots my team does by myself. If our team wasn’t good at collaborating, we wouldn’t have been able to qualify for the FIRST World Championships. These skills will also help us in our education and future careers.
What are your personal goals?
My personal goals include leaving a lasting positive impact on my community and helping to improve the lives of others. Some specific ways I plan to do this is to foster an interest in STEM for students. I want to continue mentoring robotics teams and helping the overall FIRST Robotics Community throughout my entire life. It’s always an amazing feeling to see how excited kids get when learning robotics. Additionally, I want to major in electrical engineering, followed by a law degree to hopefully have a career relating to renewable energy policy.
What are the things you try to accomplish each day?
Every night before I go to sleep I will write down a short to-do list of what I have to get done the next day. This has really helped me stay organized and manage my very busy schedule. Oftentimes this involves various projects for robotics, preparing for college, and completing scholarships. Each weekend, I make sure I set enough time aside to have fun with my friends. One of the most important things I have learned in the last few years is how to balance my school and social life. This has allowed me to continue to excel at school while also having plenty of time to spend with my friends and family.
What or who inspires you most?
I am inspired to continue my journey of increasing access to robotics thanks to all the kids who get so excited by their new experiences. Even after simple events like reading aloud a STEM-related book and showing a video about robotics, it’s so inspiring to see every kids’ hand shoot up when I ask who’s interested in trying robotics. Through my journey with FIRST Robotics, I’ve also had the incredible opportunity of meeting many inspiring people including Dean Kamen, the founder of FIRST Robotics. He told me that it was important to use my skills to do something meaningful in the world, which has really resonated with me.
How has social media acted as a positive influence on your life?
Social media has allowed me to connect with so many people that I never would have been able to without it. For robotics, I use social media to connect with many teams around the world. We can share our experiences with so many teams through social media and provide each other with great advice. Additionally, as I am preparing for college, I have used social media frequently to connect with other Yale ‘26 admits. It has been incredible to meet my potential future classmates and learn about all their unique and inspiring stories.
Of our Seven Social standards, which one would you most resonate with and why?
I most resonate with the Social Standard of using your mic for good. Personally, I used to be scared of public speaking and putting myself out into the world. However, I now frequently step out of my comfort zone to try and make a difference in the world. I have even had several meetings with US Senators and Representatives to advocate for increased STEM and robotics funding. Being involved with advocacy has taught me how gaining the courage to speak up can create life changing impacts for yourself and others.
If you could go back and talk to your younger self, what advice would you give to her about navigating social media or social relationships?
My advice would be to focus more time on building strong social relationships with people that have a positive impact on me, rather than focusing on how I look to others over a social media app. At the end of the day, most people who see your posts on a social media platform are probably not going to remember it and many are not even true friends. However, spending time to build true friendships off of social media will create life-long friends you can always count on.
The Social Institute partners with schools nationwide to empower students, families, and educators to positively navigate their well-being, social media, and technology. Schools access our student-respected, turnkey curriculum through WinAtSocial.com, an interactive, gamified learning platform. With solutions for students, parents, and educators, we offer a systemic and comprehensive social media and student well-being program through a unique and positive approach. We are proud to serve public and independent partners such as Ravenscroft School, Woodward Academy, Oldfields School, All Saints Episcopal School, Lake Forest School District, Boston Public Schools, and more. For more information on how to empower your students to make high-character decisions online and off, please contact us.