by Rachael Sage

Excited girls get ready for the introductory assembly. Photo: Rachael Sage.

How do you get 900 teenage girls to ditch their friends and go to school on a Saturday, to learn math and science? Throw the 31st annual Expanding Your Horizons in Math and Science event at Skyline College, that’s how! Under the tireless direction of Skyline College’s science department, the event went off without a hitch again on Saturday, March 19, when almost 1,000 girls converged on the campus for an exciting day of workshops designed to nurture young girls’ interests in science and math.

Expanding Your Horizons is a volunteer-run event that offers girls the opportunity to attend three 80-minute workshops devoted to science, technology, engineering and math — the STEM subjects. The attendees chose their three workshops from an offering of over 40 different workshops presented by doctors, business owners, science institutes, university professors and college students. The workshops provide hands-on experience in STEM-related topics in an educational, fun and low-pressure environment. But why the focus on women and girls?

Research suggests that until the fourth grade, girls and boys show the same interest and aptitude in STEM subjects. From fifth grade through college, the majority of girls succumb to the stereotype of math and science being male-dominated fields. Their interest wanes — and by the time they enter the workforce, men are twice as likely to work in STEM fields. EYH’s mission is to “encourage young women to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers … by providing career role models, and by actively encouraging girls to persevere in mathematics coursework.” Thus, EYH workshops are predominately taught by experts in their fields, who happen to be female. Since the attendees come from schools from different walks of life throughout the Bay Area, it is often the first time many have seen successful women in such roles. But not only is EYH academic and inspirational, it’s also super fun!

The girls start the day at registration with their parents, but quickly bid farewell as they begin the event with an assembly, move on to two workshops in the morning, lunch, then a final workshop in the afternoon. This year’s presenters had students hanging from the stairs in the “Girls Rock (Climb)” workshop, learning how to make electricity out of lemons in “Lemon Power,” analyzing blood, fingerprints, and trace evidence to solve a crime in “WhoDunIt?” and learning how climate change is affecting the ocean in “Expanding Oceans,” just to name a few. Between workshops, the girls excitedly navigate the college campus with the help of hundreds of Skyline College student volunteers.

I’ve presented at the event for several years now, and look forward to it each time because of the amount of growth I see in the students every year. The girls begin the day with enthusiastic trepidation. They meekly enter the first workshop, usually held in a large college classroom, and sit amongst foreign peers in a foreign place with a foreign “teacher.” But within a few minutes they begin calling out answers, collaborating with each other, and making new friends. By the end of the first workshop most are strutting comfortably around the campus and bubbling with excitement as they move on to the next workshop. As the day winds down the girls seem older and more confident. Many departed my final workshop with cheers and hugs and promises that they’d be back again next year.

It takes an insane amount of organization, devotion, and resolve to put on EYH. The organizers rely solely on volunteers and donations to fund the event. Presenters and college students volunteer their time, community members and organizations offer financial support, and many professors at Skyline work around the clock to distribute materials, create the workshop schedule, and recruit attendees and presenters to ensure that the day of the event is a success. Through all this effort EYH shows that STEM fields aren’t just for boys and that it is possible to become a successful woman in any field. EYH delivers this message loud and clear and the girls get it.

To become a presenter or to help support the 2012 EYH, contact Shari Bookstaff at bookstaffs@smccd.edu or Christine Case at case@smccd.edu.

On the Web:

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