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New UT Program
Opens Girls’ Eyes to Science Careers
Special to The Truth
A day of hands-on experiments and activities at The
University of Toledo aims to encourage more high school
girls to pursue math and science careers.
Girls in Science Day, the first of what coordinators hope
will become an annual event, invites more than 45 high
school sophomores and juniors to explore the fields of
engineering, chemistry and physics and astronomy with UT
women professors, administrators and students.
“Regardless of how hard we try to tell them, those fields
are still known as being male fields and that could be a
turn off,” said Isabel Escobar, UT associate professor of
chemical and environmental engineering.
Maybe checking out the Wind Tunnel
at the College of Engineering,
exploring the Ritter Planetarium and
Brooks Observatory, and
making smoking bubbles and other experiments in a
chemistry lab will turn the
girls on to the STEMM fields of science, technology,
engineering, math, and medicine.
The high school girls will be on campus from 8:30 a.m. to 2
p.m. Friday, March 19 to have those experiences.
Most of the girls attend Toledo
Public Schools, including Rogers, Woodward, and Start
high schools, as well as Toledo
Early College High School
that is located on the UT Scott Park Campus of Energy and
Innovation.
Central Catholic High School,
Ottawa Hills High School,
Springfield High School and
Delta High School also were
invited to participate.
Rosemary Haggett, Ph.D., UT Main Campus provost and
executive vice president for academic affairs, will welcome
the girls to campus at the beginning of the event.
“Involvement in the sciences can lead to so many exciting
and rewarding opportunities and experiences,” said Haggett,
who has served as an administrator with the National Science
Foundation, dean of Agriculture, Forestry and Consumer
Sciences at West Virginia
University, and a biology professor. “I encourage all
girls interested in science, math and technology to pursue
those interests and really enjoy the opportunities those
pursuits provide.”
The Catharine S. Eberly Center for Women and Northwest
Chapter of the Association of Women in Science are the
primary sponsors of the Girls in Science Day. A gift from
immunologist Dr. Philippa Marrack,
who spoke on campus last year, helped make the event
possible.
Girls in Science Day is an expansion of outreach Charlene
Gilbert, director of the Eberly Center, began when she came
to UT in 2007 and was surprised to learn only 16 percent of
students in the STEMM fields at the University were women.
“The opportunities abound for strong careers in the STEMM
fields and I want to make sure women are not left out,”
Gilbert said.
The center created the WISE mentoring program, which stands
for Women in STEMM Excelling, to help support UT’s female
students in those fields. The Girls in Science Day will take
it a step further and reach girls in high school with the
WISE students on hand to interact with the girls.
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