Magen Kranz

Junior Anna Gagne, founder and editor in chief of “The STEAM Blog”

In late August of 2023, junior Anna Gagne created her own blog to write articles that connected STEM with the arts, calling it The STEAM Blog. 

“This was kind of a spontaneous thing. I kind of came up with [the idea] in the middle of the night. I was kind of interested in writing; I heard about blogging or just writing short articles in general,” said Gagne, founder and editor of The STEAM Blog. “I wanted to try something new first of all, so I started this as a personal initiative for actually the first few months and I really enjoyed it.”

Being interested in both the sciences and arts, Gagne wanted to create a way for other students to continue expressing and learning about their passions in whatever field they are interested in. 

“I feel like it’s very common for students, especially who are interested in both STEM and the arts/social sciences, to actually end up giving up their own creative interests and passions for something within a STEM field because typically STEM fields are known to generate more income/lead to quote-unquote more successful careers,” said Gagne. 

Gagne has already recruited about 20 writers, both locally and internationally. Current writers have expressed how they feel a strong connection to the importance of STEAM and being able to spread awareness on the topic. 

“I feel like our world isn’t just science and not just art. There’s always some sort of combination that we see today. And I feel it’s really important to know how important art is because everyone’s interested,” said Michelle Su, senior at North and writer for The STEAM Blog. 

Not only have the contributors of the blog been excited to share their ideas, but they have also greatly enjoyed the process of writing articles.

“I had a lot of fun researching and writing about [STEAM],” said Su. “I’ve only written one article, but I have two others [in the drafting process] … I feel like it’s a lot more interesting to go in depth into everyday things.”

Members of The STEAM Blog have been proud of their ability to reach out to other students their age to learn something new in each article, especially as they are going into the process of deciding what to do in the future.

“I feel like just based off the 14 articles that were published and the coming drafts, there’s actually a lot of ways in which you can connect those two, vastly different things,” said Gagne. “I just want people to know that there are careers where you can channel both your logical and creative passions, but I think it’s important that you consider a career that’s genuine for you, not something that you think is labeled as successful in our society.”

One of Gagne’s biggest accomplishments is that she was able to spread her blog not only around St. Charles but also internationally through social media. 

“There are some students from North and East and also other members who I’ve been able to recruit from across the world,” said Gagne. “We’ve gained writers from countries like Pakistan, Malaysia, India and around seven other countries as well as U.S. states ranging from California to New York.”

Gagne has loved being able to share this passion of hers with other students, and is hoping to continue it throughout her high school career and possibly even after.  

“It’s definitely something I want to carry through my senior year. I just want to see it grow and explore and I also want to see how much more potential I have with that,” said Gagne. “I know students are busy, but also this is an art … so why not expand it to other students who are interested?”