Bio

Noora Aabed is a high school senior who has a deep curiosity for STEM and a drive to support girls in STEM fields. After being denied the ability to learn in male dominated spaces at school, Noora began developing her skills outside of the classroom. She participated in hackathons, the Girls Who Code program and was one of the few highschool students in the country that took a year long quantum computation class offered by IBM and The Coding School. These skills allowed her to be recognized by the STEM Impressionist Program (SIP), where she was invited to be an Administrative Leader for the organization.

Noora is also a mentor-educator. She taught coding to minority girls at HackSIP, a two day hackathon teaching micro:bit programming. She was also one of the student mentors for Starting from Scratch, a 10-week global Scratch live stream shown in India. Her efforts in STEM were recognized by the National Center for Women & Information Technology’s (NCWIT) with an Aspirations in Computing Award.

Steeped in the college application process, Noora is now focused on pursuing her interest in biochemistry and physiology. This summer she was accepted into an undergraduate research fellowship that allowed her to participate in cancer research at the University of Michigan’s Medical School. Additionally, Ms. Aabed has written a children’s book that allows girls of color to see themselves in various STEM fields.

Soon to be published, To Know the Unknown is one of the ways Noora continues to focus on being a role model for girls and inspiring them to see and pursue their interest in STEM.