The discord channel is nice, but not the only way to engage with the community :)
On steemit (or any other UI for the blockchain), there is always the opportunity to leave a comment. Encourage, ask, give advice, discuss. One of the most depressing things is a post with a decent payout but without comments.
So, if you want to help, search out people in the steemSTEM tag. Read posts that interest you, vote, comment. be a part of it! :)
That is exactly what I have been doing! I am trying to engage in the posts that really interest me, contributing as much as possible to the conversation. Some people have been fantastic at responding to create an interesting exchange of ideas.
I only wish there was a way to search for two tags at once. I would love to search for the steemSTEM tag in addition to nature or plants, which is my area of interest. Because when I just look at nature, I get lots of nature photographs and poetry, which is nice, but not always want I am looking for.