SheTech connects teen girls to role models, possibilities in STEM fields
Anastasia Varela, a freshman at the Beehive Science and Technology Academy, left, and Victoria Rangel, a junior at NUAMES, right, practice drawing blood on a phlebotomy arm in a workshop during SheTech at Mountain America Exposition Center on Tuesday, April 9, 2019, in Sandy.
Rylee Rice, an eighth grader at Olympus Junior High, center, plays a virtual reality game with the assistance of George Silva, tech support Dell EMC, left, at the Dell EMC booth during SheTech at Mountain America Exposition Center on Tuesday, April 9, 2019, in Sandy.
Cayla Strickland, a senior at Mountain View, tries out the vortex canon at the IM Flash booth during SheTech at Mountain America Exposition Center on Tuesday, April 9, 2019, in Sandy.
Students surround the Tesla booth and take photos of the vehicle during SheTech at Mountain America Exposition Center on Tuesday, April 9, 2019, in Sandy.
Victoria Rangel, a junior at NUAMES, practices drawing blood on a phlebotomy arm in a workshop during SheTech at Mountain America Exposition Center on Tuesday, April 9, 2019, in Sandy.
Students walk out of the workshop area to go to their next event during SheTech at Mountain America Exposition Center on Tuesday, April 9, 2019, in Sandy.
Students work on creating simple circuits at the Dell EMC booth during SheTech at Mountain America Exposition Center on Tuesday, April 9, 2019, in Sandy.
Myesha Gilliland, a junior at Provo High, uses a 3d printing pen practice drawing blood on a phlebotomy arm in a workshop during SheTech at Mountain America Exposition Center on Tuesday, April 9, 2019, in Sandy.
Janae Marin, an Orem Junior High 9th grader, uses the vortex canon at the IM Flash booth during SheTech at Mountain America Exposition Center on Tuesday, April 9, 2019, in Sandy.
Tuesday morning, almost 3,000 teenage girls flooded the Mountain America Expo in Sandy for SheTech, a program that not only introduces young women to careers in STEM fields, but more importantly, introduces them to female role models and mentors in those fields, according to one of the program organizers.
“What the high school girls tell us is, one of the main reasons they don’t choose STEM is they (don’t) know role models and they have no mentors,” Cydni Tetro, event organizer, said. “So, because they don’t know another woman in STEM, it’s really hard for them to see what they can become.”
Tetro is also a co-founder of the Women Tech Council, which has been around for roughly a decade. SheTech, one of the Women Tech Council programs, has been running for six years, and has grown from just 250 girls who attended the first year to nearly 3,000 this year. SheTech, Tetro explained, is a way to give young women hands-on experiences, show them how tech touches every field and introduce them to mentors and role models, “so they can see pathways forward.”
SheTech also boasts 700 mentors and volunteers in STEM fields to interact with young women who come from all over the state to attend. About 90% of girls who attend SheTech become interested in pursuing STEM fields, Tetro said. And SheTech isn’t just the one-day event; it runs throughout the year, inviting women to community tech events as well as an internship in the summer.
“It completely changes their perspective on, ‘Oh, I can become that person,'” Tetro said of the internship. “We want their minds going, ‘I can do that, there’s an opportunity there for me.'”
Eighteen-year-old Deisy Archibald, a senior at Lone Peak High School, attended SheTech for the first time, after doing a SheTech internship in June 2018. In the fall, she’ll attend Utah State University and hopes to pursue a degree in web design or web development. She said she didn’t expect the event to be quite so big, but that it’s been amazing to see the amount of young women interested in STEM.
“It feels really cool to know that there are other girls out there trying to pursue a career in technology and that women can do what men can do,” Archibald said.
That’s one of the things Tetro also finds most rewarding about the event.
“I would say the thing that’s most powerful about this is how inspiring it is to see all the girls together, because you don’t get very many opportunities where you see thousands of girls around tech,” Tetro said. “They see other girls like them, other girls in different backgrounds and different interests but there’s this uniting factor when you walk in there, and you’re like, wait, I belong in this group and I can be that.”
For Deisy, being a part of a community is one of the best parts of being involved with SheTech.
“I’m just excited to know there’s another world out there for women to be able to (have) a career and just to be able to be confident in what they’re doing and not be scared to reach out of their boundaries and things.”
The SheTech event resonates personally for those reasons and more with Dr. Helen Knaggs, a scientist who has worked at NuSkin for the past 13 years, identifying research and trends in skin care and overseeing personal care product development. Her love for biology started when she was a child, and that love and passion has driven her throughout her career; it hasn’t been easy, of course, and she said she’s faced several challenges in her 30 years in the field.
NuSkin had a class for the young women to attend where they could experience making a simple skincare product and even mix pigments to create their own individual shades, in addition to learning about the benefits of certain skincare ingredients and how to use them. She said her favorite part was seeing the young women who attended so enthusiastic and eager to learn.
“Seeing these really keen, enthusiastic girls wanting to explore this world of science, that … really resonated with me,” Knaggs said.
Learn more about SheTech and the summer internship program by visiting http://shetechexplorer.com/students/internships.
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