ladies with awesome careers! tech and geekgirls read this..

erikamay · Post by **erikamay** » January 23rd, 2007, 10:46 am

hey ladies!

i'm volunteering over at Girlstart today, helping them out with an upcoming program, called Expanding Your Horizons.

EYH is a day-long event in March that pairs women in the community (particularly those in male-dominated professions) with a classroom full of middle school girls.

here's where you come in! they are looking for professional women willing to share information and lead a hands-on session about her career to tell the next generation about potential career paths. of specific interest are women in traditionally male-dominated fields, like math, science and technology (deroos, young, firth, latief and farr - i'm looking at you!).

please volunteer and represent! otherwise, i will have to hound you about this.

werd dawls,

e

About the program:
Expanding Your Horizons (EYH) is a one-day event held at the University of Texas where middle school girls from around Austin get to participate in workshops led by professional women who have careers in math, science and technology. Each workshop lasts 50 minutes, and presenters can sign up to lead workshops in the morning, afternoon, or all day. We have a thrilling line up of workshop tracks for girls to choose from and we'd LOVE your help leading a workshop OR giving us any referrals for women vets, doctors, dentists, geologists, etc that you love!

Program areas to be covered during the day!
- Design World (Engineering) See how engineers design your world, and explore the wonders of building skyscrapers and programming robots.

- Get Wired (Technology) Dive into the latest technology behind your favorite gadgets! Get the behind-the-scenes look at the technology in your world.

- Career Girl (Sampler/Entrepreneurial) Discover your future passion by trying new things! Sample different careers and see what it takes to be anything from a doctor to a geologist.

- Fun Factor (General Math, Science) Explore the FUN in math and science! Workshops may uncover the secrets of forensic science, piloting a plane and optical illusions.

- Rock Out! (Geology, Meteorology) Tune into the mysteries of the earth. Workshops may include the science behind earthquakes, and identifying creatures in their natural habitat.

- Girl, MD (Medicine) Back by popular demand! Examine what it takes to be a doctor for people and animals. Workshops may include conducting practice surgery, discovering how the human body works and veterinary medicine.

Presenters are asked to sign up to lead the same workshop for two 50 minute sessions.

We encourage presenters to plan for most of their presentation to consist of a hands-on activity so the girls stay captivated and have the opportunity to â€œget their hands dirty.â€

nadine · Post by **nadine** » January 23rd, 2007, 10:52 am

hey erika, i volunteered with girlstart for 2 years, teaching at middle schools in round rock. they are a good organization.

what is the date for this? is it a weekend?

thanks, nadine.

erikamay · Post by **erikamay** » January 23rd, 2007, 11:22 am

march 24th at UT. i think that is a saturday?

starts at 8am. check out http://www.eyhaustin.org

thanks nadine!
e

deroosisonfire · Post by **deroosisonfire** » January 23rd, 2007, 2:16 pm

i love expanding your horizons! between participating as a middle schooler to volunteering in high school and college i've done 5 EYH's.

thanks for posting this, erika. andrea and i will probably put something together.

kaceysamiee · Post by **kaceysamiee** » January 23rd, 2007, 6:24 pm

I'm in a highly male dominated industry. I'm one of the few in my company and the only on in my department.

i miss women.
boys smell.

However, I am not a scientist, mathematician, or engineer....how important is that to these people?

kaci_beeler · Post by **kaci_beeler** » January 23rd, 2007, 6:57 pm

kaceysamiee wrote:I'm in a highly male dominated industry. I'm one of the few in my company and the only on in my department.

i miss women.
boys smell.

However, I am not a scientist, mathematician, or engineer....how important is that to these people?

I bet you could be in "Design World" or "Get Wired".

erikamay · Post by **erikamay** » January 24th, 2007, 8:59 am

kacey wrote:However, I am not a scientist, mathematician, or engineer....how important is that to these people?

not at all important. that's the majority of the programming they do (activities related to these fields), so they tend to request those professions first. however, the bigger picture is empowering and educating girls.

i would have loved to know about lighting design when i was a kid! you could come up with some really cool interactive stuff for your session too.

do it samiee!
e