Girls' Summit introduces ESF careers to community teens

CNY Girls Summit STEAM Career Conference for area middle and high schoolers returned to ESF on May 7.

Of the eight workshops offered during the program, half had very close ESF ties. Dr. Biljana Bujanovic’s team helped participants make paper, tested strength of commercial paper, and led facility tours.  Dr. Whitney Lash Marshall facilitated a systems thinking exercise, while Ms. Linda McGuigan guided participants through extracting DNA from strawberries and discussed the Chestnut project.  Alumna Ms. Kritika Thapa, now with EA Engineering, challenged groups through a water filtration exercise.  In addition, first year student Jet’aime “Jet” Lewis joined a College Preparation Panel with moderator Mel Menon,  of On Point for College, and students from Upstate Medical University, SU, OCC, and LeMoyne College.

Post-workshop surveys of the 90+ participants indicated that participants were indeed introduced to new careers and left with a greater interest in science and math than when they arrived.  Paper making and DNA extraction were clear favorites of the participants, with water filtration not far behind.

The 2016 program was a collaboration of the Girls' Inc/YWCA (Girls' Inc Specialist  Flavia Rey de Castro and interns Gina Ricci and Hannah Cash, both OCC students); ESF (Women's Caucus program coordinator, Heather Engelman: Interim Chief Diversity Officer Anne Lombard,  Maura Stefl of Outreach, and Eileen Baldesarre of C-STEP), and SU (Tanaya Thomas-Edwards, STEP).