Board 160: Empowerment in STEM Day: Introducing High School Girls to Careers at National Laboratories (Work in Progress)
- Conference
- Location
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Portland, Oregon
- Publication Date
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June 23, 2024
- Start Date
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June 23, 2024
- End Date
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July 12, 2024
- Conference Session
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Pre-College Engineering Education Division (PCEE) Poster Session
- Tagged Division
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Pre-College Engineering Education Division (PCEE)
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/46722
Paper Authors
Baishakhi Bose Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Baishakhi Bose is currently a Postdoctoral Scholar at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL). Her current research focus is on life cycle assessment of novel polymers, building materials and plastic recycling processes. She obtained her PhD. in Materials Engineering from Purdue University in 2021. Since 2014, she has taught courses in Civil, Materials and First Year Engineering to undergraduates, and mentored undergraduate and graduate students in STEM to foster research and professional development skills. She also has relevant experiences in organizing undergraduate research symposium/conferences, hosting professional development workshops, providing guidance on undergraduate/graduate school application. Currently, she serves as a Teaching Scholar for the K-12 STEM Education Program at Berkeley Lab and is involved with curriculum development of K-12 outreach at LBNL.
Lydia Rachbauer
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
orcid.org/0000-0002-0660-6893
Lydia Rachbauer is a Project Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, as part of the Deconstruction Division at the Joint Bioenergy Institute.
She holds a bachelor's degree in Food Technology & Biotechnology, a master's degree in Biotechnology, and received her PhD from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, in the field of Environmental Biotechnology with a focus on microbial gas conversion by anaerobic consortia. She joined Berkeley Lab in 2019 for her postdoctoral research on the microbial mechanisms for deconstruction and conversion of the complex polysaccharide structures in marine seaweed. Currently, Lydia works on acetogenic C1 conversion and microbial chain elongation to produce precursors for sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs). She also serves on the Women’s Support & Empowerment Council ERG as co-chair of the Empowerment Subcommittee in support of the Lab’s IDEA efforts to foster community at Berkeley Lab and empower the next generation of scientists and engineers.
Elina Dluger Rios
Faith Marie Dukes Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Faith started combining her passions for science and education as an instructor with Science from Scientists while working on her PhD thesis on waste remediation using photocatalytic semiconductors. She went on to develop educational programs as the Education Coordinator at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Museum before transitioning to Washington, DC as an American Association for the Advancement of Science, Science Technology Policy Fellow. During her time as a Fellow, she served at the National Science Foundation in the Education and Human Resources Directorate.
Abstract
In the US, women are still vastly underrepresented in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) careers, and various studies have shown that girls’ interest in STEM careers wane as high school progresses. With this challenge in mind, Empowerment in STEM Day was organized by National Laboratory X, hosting 47 high school students from 6 public high schools in the area. This one-day event was designed and executed through a collaboration between the Women’s Support and Empowerment Council (WSEC) and the K-12 STEM Education and Outreach Program at National Laboratory X. The main goal of this program was to provide high school girls, who have little access to STEM career role-models in their immediate surroundings with insights into how a career in STEM looks like. Invitations to participate in the program were sent out to six local high schools in the area asking educators to identify female students that were interested in STEM. Each high school participant was provided with an opportunity to experience a national laboratory environment, learn more about summer workshops and paid summer research internship opportunities at National Laboratory X for high school students, and engage directly with National Laboratory X’s employees through job shadow, career mapping and speed networking sessions. In this paper, we will present an overview of the event organization, challenges faced during planning and execution of the event, discuss the lessons learned from the first Empowerment in STEM Day and suggest strategies for incorporating such events at other national laboratories and academic institutions as part of a vital effort into recruiting and retaining more high school girls in STEM-based careers. Additionally, since this was the first in-person event hosted by National Lab X’s K-12 Program after the pandemic, we will also share the strategies implemented at the event so as to engage both remote and on-site employees as volunteers.
Bose, B., & Rachbauer, L., & Dluger Rios, E., & Dukes, F. M. (2024, June), Board 160: Empowerment in STEM Day: Introducing High School Girls to Careers at National Laboratories (Work in Progress) Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/46722
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