Kathie Shields, executive director of the Tech Collective, is making sure young girls aren’t squeezed out of the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields by traditional stereotypes.
Tech Collective hosted the 10th annual Girls Reach Remarkable Levels tech expo on Nov. 19 with Roger Williams University. The expo had a record number of participants this year and was touted as a “fantastic success,” by Shields.
Young female students were allowed to explore mobile crime labs, recreate crimes scenes, and in general, explore their “inner” geek.
One lucky girl was awarded a full-tuition scholarship to Roger Williams University – an honor valued at $111,000.
PBN: So how did this year’s GRRL Tech expo go? What were the most popular workshops?
SHIELDS: This year’s GRRL Tech was a fantastic success! It was our biggest event to date, with more than 525 students and more than 90 educators and STEM industry professionals.
We hosted 20 student workshops this year and one educator workshop. Five of the student workshops were brand new, as we are always working to keep up with industry trends as well as engage and interest the students. Of those, the most popular were the Technology and Law Enforcement workshop in conjunction with the Bristol Police Department, which allowed students to explore the department’s mobile crime lab and vehicles, and the technologies that enable the officers to do their jobs.
Roger Williams University and Amgen also teamed up for an engineering workshop in which the students were given a critical thinking and teamwork challenge to transport a glass sphere across the room using only everyday materials, and not their hands.
Criminal justice and forensics are popular year after year, and we added three related workshops: Forensic Accounting, Crime Scene Re-Creation and Trace Evidence at the Crime Scene. These were facilitated with the R.I. State Crime Lab. Also, the biology, biotechnology and marine science workshops are consistently sought after. Students are able to explore how zebrafish are used by scientists in understanding the human heart.
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PBN: What can you tell us about this winner of the RWU scholarship winner? What have previous scholarship winners gone on to do?
SHIELDS: The recipient of this year’s GRRL Tech Roger Williams University scholarship is Kate Farinha. Ms. Farinha is a junior at Seekonk High School, and she has a passion for technology and mathematics as well as nature and design. Her dream is to incorporate all of these aspects as she aspires to pursue a career in sustainable architecture. She wrote in her winning essay how she wants improve the economy, the environment, our communities by create “green” homes and buildings from renewable resources while still conserving the natural beauty around us. And, as a testament to her character, all of the students in her class shared with us that this “could not have happened to a better person.” Ms. Farinha herself earned the scholarship. We just had the opportunity with RWU to honor her with the award.
We were also honored this year to have our last GRRL Tech event’s scholarship winner, Susan Woodard, join us throughout the day and during the scholarship presentation to Ms. Farinha. Susan graduated from Chariho High School this past June and is now a freshman at RWU, majoring in engineering. It is empowering and encouraging to see the scholarship come full circle, and we are more than grateful for the generosity of RWU in both their scholarship donation as well as for the many hours and efforts contributed by the University faculty and staff throughout the whole GRRL Tech planning period and event for the past four years.
PBN: This is the 10th time GRRLs has been celebrated, how have you seen the expos evolve?
SHIELDS: This always makes us laugh, because we can remember the early GRRL Tech days of welcoming approximately 70 students to CCRI and offering 6 workshops. So it goes without saying that GRRL Tech has morphed into a life of its own and a much-anticipated event! We have come to the point where we are overflowing with requests to attend, so we expanded our numbers from the usual 400 or more students to again the 525 this year. We’ve also been able to add the scholarship aspect, which is so exciting. And we’ve been able to engage dozens of local technology companies and hundreds of STEM professionals to share their excitement, stories and knowledge at the event.
The other thing we’ve seen change – and this is at the core our mission – is attitude. At a GRRL Tech event several years back, we were approached by a student who said her experience that day had completely changed her perspective. She had wanted to go to college to become a scientist, but was not initially encouraged to do so, and told that was “a man’s job,” and why didn’t she go into something like nursing or teaching. We obviously work to fight this mentality at every turn we can.
I think in combination with many other great initiatives in this state and across the nation, we are changing that mentality. We have students, parents, teachers, and female STEM professionals all wanting to get involved. The adults tell us how much they wish they had this opportunity when they were in school. It’s getting better, but we still have a long way to go before there is equal awareness and opportunity for women to enter the STEM fields.
PBN: What kind of direct results have been achieved? How many of the GRRL participants have gone on to have careers in STEM fields?
SHIELDS: As GRRL Tech continues to grow, measuring long-term results is something that we are investigating how to integrate. In the early days of GRRL Tech, we never dreamed we’d have such an impact, nor did we have the capacity or resources to measure such results.
But in recent years, we have tracked short-term measurements, including students’ reactions to GRRL Tech and how it might have affected their perspectives or pursuit of STEM careers. For many of the responses we receive, students are impressed by what they learn and want to learn more of the opportunities that are there for them.
That is one goal of GRRL Tech – again, to raise awareness and change attitudes. In that aspect, we are measuring tremendous success. On the long-term level, we are looking in the near future is to be able use technology and social media to track what education and career decisions students make after GRRL Tech, measuring its life-long impact, as hopefully even bringing them back to be a GRRL Tech presenter or speaker!
PBN: What else can we be doing to help girls explore STEM fields? What else should parents and schools be doing?
SHIELDS: The biggest thing we can be doing is encouraging. There are more opportunities for our youth – boys or girls – than ever before. When our children or our students approach us wanting to explore a career path, we need to listen to them, understand what it is they want to do and why they are interested. And then provide them with the opportunities and resources to explore that interest.
The next thing is to continue to raise STEM awareness. STEM isn’t just cleaning test tubes or sitting in a crowded cubicle coding computer software. We work with many organizations to try to educate students, parents, teachers and the general public about what STEM actually is, what careers it offers, and how it is a critical component to our everyday lives. That includes classroom visits by industry professionals, job shadows, company tours, career and tech academies, and public awareness campaigns. And we can always be reached out to for those resources as well. Growing STEM awareness, support and resources are key to encouraging and engaging our youth in these critical high-tech, high-wage and high-growth industries.
