Future Women STEM Professionals

Although it is women's history month, I want to take some time to reflect upon the future history makers, our young girls. On Tuesday morning, I was having a conversation with a program manager at the WGBH foundation in Boston. She manages several programs on the station that focus on getting young girls interested in stem careers. Their programs were segmented into age appropriate (elementary, middle and high) content and was a mixture of curriculum and interactive media. The interactive media consisted of games, videos of girls their age engaged in hands on math and science activities as well as women who were stem professionals. I was very excited to see all of these resources to let young ladies not only learn about STEM careers, but to see their peers engage in hands on math and science. I am curious about how many young girls have visited their website to see a picture of girls and women not only excelling in math and science, but having a blast doing science.

But I was hit with the reality that not enough girls are seeing these resources on the website as I spend some time with some Bay Area elementary school girls. These girls had no clue what engineers did, let alone thought of the possibility that they could be an engineer or another STEM professional. The good news is I spent a time with them and told them that I was a chemical engineer (at least by training) and their eyes lit up and the questions became to come. So we talked about what chemical engineers do, what they make and evidence of the work of chemical engineers in their every day lives. We had the same conversation about civil, computer, electrical and mechanical engineers as well. I am not sure if these young girls will be able to remember the distinctions between the engineering disciplines. However , they did leave learning two lessons, they could be an engineer one day because they just meet a female engineer. The second lesson was the engineers design things that we use in our everyday lives.

I must admit, that I never meet a female engineer while I was in elementary, middle or high school. I actually didn't meet my first female chemical engineer until my freshman year in college. But what I can appreciate about my teachers, is that I was a girl that enjoyed and excelled in math and science and my teachers and family encouraged that in me. If we want to ensure that our young girls become women in science, we must start there letting them know that achieving academically in math and science is okay and encouraging them when they do. The second step is exposing them to as many resources such as these that these organizations produce to let them see other girls and women in science.

As SEM Link looks to organizations that we can partner with, I am so glad that we are establishing relationships with organizations that are focusing on getting young girls academic achieving in math and science and exploring STEM careers. A slogan I once heard, Science is Woman's Work, that is what I want young girls to believe. You are brilliant and talented and can be anything you want to be when you grow up, including a STEM professional.