Board 160: Empowerment in STEM Day: Introducing High School Girls to Careers at National Laboratories (Work in Progress)

Conference · Sun Jun 23 00:00:00 EDT 2024

DOI:https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--46722· OSTI ID:2476187

Bose, Baishakhi; Rachbauer, Lydia; Dluger Rios, Elina; Dukes, Faith

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 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), 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 LBNL. 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 Bay 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 LBNL for high school students, and engage directly with LBNL'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 LBNL'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.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231
• OSTI ID: 2476187
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English