My Story
Within my community, there is a minimal number of women found in engineering careers. Young girls have very few examples of strong women leaders to emulate and base their future educational goals on. I feel it is imperative for young females to know other females have had the courage and motivation to pursue male dominated careers. Having this connection will make a significant impact on their future success.
My Project
My project is a one-week summer camp based at Mountain View Elementary focused on young women and the field of chemical engineering. The camp is designed to empower and build character among young Hispanic females while encouraging them to pursue a career in STEM areas. By providing hands on learning opportunities for participants, I want to completely remove any stereotypes or previous ideas about the types of people found within the engineering field. By changing people’s perspective, I hope to teach young females that they can have a future in STEM and be able to openly express their interests in science and mathematics.
While this camp is meant to reach out young females, I feel that it is also very important for the families and parents of these young girls to be aware of what their child is participating in. It is also important for them to understand how they can encourage their daughter throughout her engineering journey. To do this, the last day of the camp will be dedicated as a family day and parents and siblings of the students will be invited to join. We will invite local female engineers to share their engineering story and give advice to the younger students. Interpreters will be available to support families.
Update
Lillian graduated from high school in 2020 and is attending North Carolina State University, where she plans to study biomedical engineering!