Local AAUW steers girls toward STEM careers

Girls! You, too, can thrive in science, technology, engineering and math.

The local branch of the American Association of University Women does not just speak this message; its members are passionately involved in three programs each year to encourage and nurture young females in these areas.

“One area of deep concern for us is the low number of women pursuing careers in STEM fields,” explained Wendy Ping, a board member of the Livermore-Pleasanton-Dublin branch of AAUW. “Our society all too often subtly tells girls and women that they don’t belong in science, technology, engineering and math.”

Next Saturday, Feb. 24, is the annual Expanding Your Horizons daylong conference at the Diablo Valley College San Ramon campus, for girls in grades 6-9 to learn what STEM careers can be all about.

“The Expanding Your Horizons conference is open to everyone, with online registration,” Ping said, although this year’s event is full. “Girls can do walk-ins on the day of the event, and pick up workshops from girls who are no-shows.”

Although the conference is put on by the Expanding Your Horizons Network, AAUW provides volunteers to help each year.

“AAUW has a lot of human resources, people with time, some older members retired from STEM careers or careers in education, and who have a passion for this type of thing,” Ping said.

For more information, visit www.tveyh.org.

The second STEM program is Tech Trek, a one-week residential camp organized by AAUW at universities across the country for girls going into the eighth grade.

“It started in California,” said Ping, who has been involved from the start 20 years ago and is branch coordinator. “We have 22 campuses in California. Our branch attends at the Stanford campus.”

The branch chooses eight to nine girls from the Tri-Valley each year to attend Camp Marie Curie at Stanford University. Science teachers from the area’s 10 middle schools each nominate four candidates, who go through a selection process including an interview with an AAUW committee.

AAUW pays the cost of the camp but campers are not necessarily chosen based on financial need.

“The objective is to choose girls upon whom this camp can have the most impact on their lives,” Ping said. “Last year, we had three from Pleasanton, five from Livermore, and one from Dublin.”

At Tech Trek, the girls live in a dorm and eat in a dining hall, just like a college student. Hands-on activities in the mornings explore engineering design, cybersecurity, forensics, marine biology or computer coding. Afternoons and evenings include field trips and workshops led by Bay Area women working in a variety of STEM fields.

Ping was a dorm mom at Camp Curie last summer.

“It is a truly remarkable program,” she said. “It changes girls’ perspectives on what’s available to them and what they can do.”

“They spend every day surrounded by 79 or more other girls who have the same interests — cool girls, girls who are fun to be around,” she added. “Many don’t find a lot of female peers that share that.”

The third program, STEAM Divas, kicked off last fall, a collaboration between Livermore-Pleasanton-Dublin AAUW and the Expanding Your Horizons Network, for Livermore girls in the fourth- and fifth-grade age range. (STEAM is STEM subjects plus arts.)

“We wanted to engender excitement in STEM at a younger age, since it is known that girls’ interest in STEM fields can begin to fade as early as elementary school,” Ping said.

At the all-day STEAM Divas, girls rotate in small groups through three workshops: Fun with Energy; Prisms, Colors & Angles; and Get Creative with Code.

“Our objective was not only to set up a hands-on STEM/STEAM event for girls in this valley, but also to develop a template for this type of program that could be used anywhere in the country,” Ping said.

Ping, a Pleasanton resident, is a materials engineer by training and worked for 30 years at Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corp.; early in her career she worked as a presenter at the Expanding Your Horizons conference. The event is now in its 40th year to encourage girls into enter STEM fields, where women still are a low percentage of the work force.

“It boggles my mind that we haven’t made more inroads,” Ping said.

Seven of the 108 local AAUW members are on the STEM committee, but all contribute to the efforts with their fundraising, including writing grant proposals, Ping noted.

The mission of the AAUW, founded in 1881, is to advance equity for women and girls and to empower them as individuals and as a community.

“We strongly believe that our mission and programs are more relevant than ever,” Ping said.

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