Girl Scouts of Southeastern New England kick off STEAM workshop series in R.I.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN – The Girl Scouts of Southeastern New England hosted the state’s first Discovering STEAM Workshop last week, the first in a series designed to encourage young women in Rhode Island to explore activities and careers in science, technology and the arts.

About 55 Girl Scouts attended the event, held Aug. 2 at GSSNE’s Camp Hoffman in South Kingstown, where six guest speakers – all women employed in STEAM-related careers – introduced their respective fields with hands-on activities and group discussions.

The speakers included Kimberly Arcand and Kristin DiVona, visualization specialists for NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory; Amara Berry, a Brown University graduate and director of the Camp Sparkle program; Meg DeCubellis, a professor of apparel design at the Rhode Island School of Design; Jen Rudolph, manager of Ambassador Animal Programming at Roger Williams Park Zoo; and Lee Steitz, a marine science teacher at Toll Gate High School in Warwick.

The Aug. 2 event at Camp Hoffman was the first of four Discovering STEAM Workshops to be held quarterly over the next year. Each workshop will be hosted by a different youth organization, with a focus on groups that serve young women and minorities.

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The Discovering STEAM Workshop series is organized by the Rhode Island chapter of Million Women Mentors, a national initiative to increase the number of young women pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics.

The Rhode Island STEAM Center and Mentor Rhode Island are joint coordinators of Million Women Mentors RI, and Gov. Gina M. Raimondo serves as the honorary chair of the State Leadership Team.

The inaugural workshop hosted by GSSNE came after the Girl Scouts of the USA announced 38 new badges last month to reward its members for engaging in outdoor activities and STEAM topics such as robotics, engineering, computer programming and environmental science.

On Tuesday, Aug. 29, GSSNE plans to unveil a new program called “Full STEAM Ahead!” to encourage Girl Scouts to explore the “wild world” of science, technology and the arts. GSSNE and its 2,700 adult volunteers serve more than 6,500 girls and young women in Rhode Island, in addition to its members from southeastern Massachusetts and Pawcatuck, Conn.

For more information about Million Women Mentors RI and upcoming events in the Discovering STEAM Workshop series, visit www.millionwomenmentors.com/ri.

Kaylen Auer is a PBN contributing writer.