Texas Girls Camp Shows Careers in STEM

In this UT Dallas news post, we learned about an awesome new camp for girls, SMART College Camp, organized by Girls Inc. of Metropolitan Dallas, Richland College and UT Dallas’ Science and Engineering Education Center (SEEC). The two week long camp gave twenty Dallas-area teenage girls an exciting look into STEM careers.

Campers started off  with a week at Richland College to explore the community college experience, followed by exposure to the four-year experience at UT Dallas during the second week.

SMART aims to help with college readiness and broaden the horizons of young girls, showing them the many pathways available for them to succeed.

“This camp gives the girls a flavor of STEM careers and introduces them to women who are successful scientists and engineers,” said Dr. Bernine Khan, director of SEEC and environmental engineer, in the article. “But integrated into it is how to get there, how to prepare for college, for both two-year and four-year institutions.”

The article quotes Lori Palmer, CEO of Girls Inc. of Metropolitan Dallas, saying that most the girls had never met a scientist.  So we love that this program allows young girls to see motivated STEM career women in action!

For example, the article reports that, at UT Dallas, the campers met to meet two female scientists, who got the girls into a white lab coat, gloves, and goggles and provided a hands-on instruction to nanotechnology and carbon nanotubes. Further, later in the week, the girls got an inside view of computer science, where UT professor Dr. Ryan McMahan equipped several volunteers with a head-mounted, 3-D display and a handheld controller device to “fly” through a computer-generated virtual world.

The article also explains that campers got the opportunity to hear from members of their Dallas community, including Dr. Shana Santos, a chemist for the Southwest Institute of Forensic Science, Dan Lepinski, an design engineer consultant from the North Texas Renewable Energy Group, and engineers from Dallas-based Texas Instruments.  In a very cool touch, Santos held an interactive crime scene “whodunit” workshop using chromatography, which examines trace evidence, and Lepinksi took campers through a virtual trip around the world to see how the US and other countries utilize solar power.

A quote from a young camper named Rickera who is thinking about a future career as a pediatrician says it all.  We’re learning stuff that can prepare us for the future.”

Go Campers, Go!