Although women have made great strides in the workforce, they still lack a strong presence in the fields of science and math. That’s why Making Electives Count for Career Achievement (MECCA) and Expanding Your Horizons (EYH) provide Tri-Valley girls with opportunities to spark their interest in math, science, engineering and technology and explore careers in those fields.
“I think women have made great strides in sciences and math and technology, but it’s in a very limited area where they have made those great strides, primarily biological sciences,” said Ginny McGaha, school counselor for the Tri-Valley Regional Occupational Program and director of the MECCA program. “There is a great need to bring women into physics, engineering and other hard science research. It’s important because, as a country, we are really looking for scientists and engineers, and women bring a totally different perspective then men.”
Nearly 175 high school girls from Pleasanton, Livermore and Dublin are involved with MECCA this year. During this year-long program, students take part in science workshops, go on science-related field trips and meet with women working in the field of science. Already, students have studied how the sense of smell works, the physics of steel strength, how to graph changes in speed and direction and explored the biological makeup of squids.
“(MECCA) helps a lot with my science and math classes in high school because a lot of the things I’ve done in my classes I had already done in MECCA,” said Foothill senior Samantha Herbert. Herbert started going to MECCA her sophomore year after one of her teachers told her about the program. “I was interested because I knew I wanted to go somewhere with science, but wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. It’s a good way to explore my options and see what is out there.”
McGaha said career exploration is a key part of the program. That is why students also go on field trips where they meet with science professionals. This year students had a chance to tour Google, visit the engineering department of Santa Clara University, which has the second largest female professorship in the country, and learn veterinary skills at the Oakland Zoo.
“We want to expose girls to a variety of careers in science and technology because when most people think of a career in science, all they can think of is being a doctor and we want them to know all that is out there,” McGaha said.
During this year’s Tri-Valley EYH conference at the SBC facility in San Ramon, students will have the chance to study forensic science, work with animals, find out how science affects the work of the Coast Guard and more. Pleasanton’s Kristen Stivers, a biomedical scientist at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, attended the conference when she was in ninth grade and is coming back this year to lead the forensic science workshop titled “CSI San Ramon.”
“It was a really fun experience,” Stivers said of her time going to the conference as a student. “It was neat to see these hardworking professional women take time out of their busy schedules and give back to young girls. They were all very willing to share what made them get into the career they chose.”
Stivers originally went to EYH because she was interested in becoming a pediatrician, but later went the route of research studying how food-based mutagens that can cause cancer bind to DNA.
“I just love doing outreach,” Stivers said. “It’s so fun to see young girls get excited about science.”
Getting involved
Sign-ups for MECCA start in October. Interested students can visit their school’s career center or call Ginny McGaha at 455-4800, ext. 109.
The Tri-Valley Expanding Your Horizons conference is Saturday, Feb. 24 at the SBC facility in San Ramon. The conference is currently full, but girls can sign-up for drop-in spots by arriving the day of the event. There is still space available for the EYH conference at Mills College on Saturday, March 18. Call Ann Willoughby at 423-4234 for more information.
