MARYSVILLE – More than 700 8th-grade students took over Yuba College’s campus this week to learn about all the possibilities in STEM before they enroll in high school classes.
“What they choose helps determine what kind of career they’re going to start out in anyways,” said Martha Bunce, the executive council leader for the American Association of University Women Marysville-Yuba City, a women-led organization that spearheaded the event.
As 8th graders start to focus on their futures, the AAUW is focusing on them, specifically, young girls and their interest in science, technology, engineering and math.
“Girls don’t see themselves as STEM,” Bunce said. “It’s clearly an underrepresented field for women.”
AAUW is trying to change that. In their annual STEM conference for 8th-grade girls, students are able to meet and learn from professional women in STEM.
“I learned about auto repair, repairing cars,” said Amelia, an 8th-grade student. “It could help later in life if you ever want to be something like that.”
“Girls come back and say I didn’t even know there were girls like me that love this stuff,” Bunce said.
The conference has been going on for more than 25 years. It’s all about opening students’ minds and exposing them to all the careers they could pursue in STEM.
AAUW’s goal is to give girls the confidence to go after what they want, even if that means being in a male-dominated field. It’s a goal they’ve been working on for nearly 150 years.
“It started in 1881,” Bunce said. “So we are tenacious and trailblazing. We’re still here we’re still working on it, we’re going to keep working on it.”
Twenty-four Yuba Sutter area schools are participating this year, organizers say it’s grown significantly over the last few years. They’ve even had to start putting limits on attendance.
“That kind of enthusiasm tells us that we’re doing something that’s good and something that’s important for girls,” Bunce said.
AAUW’s next big event is their annual garden tour in May. Tickets purchased for that help fund the stem field trip.
