(Left to right) Eighth-graders Kristen Brooke Deleon from Hogan Middle School, Kaela Reed from the Mare Island Institute of Technology Academy (MIT), Marina Gonzalez from Hogan, Caitlin Begbie and Michelle Fernandez from Benicia Middle School and Gabriella Pasami from MIT were the six winners from the Benicia-Vallejo American Association of University Women’s Tech Trek scholarship. They got to attend a STEM camp at Sonoma State in June. (Courtesy photo)

Six middle school girls, including two from Benicia, will share their experiences of attending a weeklong science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) camp this past summer during the Benicia-Vallejo American Association of University Women’s (AAUW) potluck dinner on Tuesday.

The girls’ experience was part of Tech Trek 2017, a summer camp founded by AAUW of California member Marie Wolbach to provide middle school girls with a camp featuring science, technology, engineering and math-based activities and inspire them to pursue one of those fields. The goal is to make those fields more accessible to middle school girls since that is typically the age when girls lose interest in those areas, according to AAUW research.

“We all know about the lack of women that are in STEM careers and professions,” Christine Dunn, the Tech Trek coordinator for Benicia-Vallejo AAUW, said. “We are trying to rectify that. We want to get girls interested in this kind of career early on. I think there’s been a lot of research that shows that girls in middle school drop off, lose interest in the sciences and mathematics, and we want to encourage them to stay in it.”

To start the process, Benicia-Vallejo AAUW members send notifications in January to all seventh through ninth-grade math and science teachers in Benicia and Vallejo asking for five candidates to represent each school. The candidates are encouraged to fill out applications and write personal essays. After the pool is whittled down, the girls go through an interview process and the AAUW selects six girls from any school to receive scholarships and attend the Tech Trek camp in June.

Benicia Middle School candidates had received recommendations from teachers like Tom Horne, Megan Nelson and Siretta Tuttle, but two finalists emerged from the pack to represent BMS at the tech trek camp: eighth-graders Caitlin Begbie and Michelle Fernandez. Also selected were four Vallejo students: Kristin Brooke Deleon and Marina Gonzalez from Hogan Middle School, and Gabriella Pasami and Kaela Reed from the Mare Island Institute of Technology Academy.

The six girls attended the Tech Trek camp at Sonoma State University from June 18 to 24. Over the course of a week, they got to participate in activities in a variety of disciplines. They learned chemistry by making their own lip gloss, biology through building chains of DNA sequencing, and engineering through a competition to build the strongest bridge using only newspapers and toothpicks.

The fun did not stop there. They also went on a field trip to a wastewater treatment plant, made a boat out of clay and loaded it with small plastic cubes to test its buoyancy, built and tested a tissue paper hot air balloon and examined animal bones to determine how the creature perished. They also got to work alongside female astrologists, biologists, electricians, engineers and physicists.

“The girls have the opportunity to select an area of emphasis that they’re particularly interested in,” Dunn said. “They attend activities focused on that area of interest.”

“Throughout the week, there are also opportunities to get a taste of these things, so even if it wasn’t the thing that they selected or the thing that they thought they were interested in, they have an opportunity to experience it and maybe change their focus for moving forward in their academic pursuit,” she added.

The girls also received support from Benicia-Vallejo AAUW members, including retired Benicia High School science teacher Sande Sutter who volunteered as a camp teacher, and retired librarian Sandy Kirkpatrick and retired project manager Linda Chandler, who volunteered to serve as dorm mothers.

The six girls will be speaking at the potluck dinner to talk about what it was like to stay away from home for a week as well as how their experience at the camp has shaped their educational and career aspirations.

Dunn hopes that taking part in activities in the field will have a positive impact on the girls’ goals.

“Many of the women at Tech Trek are professionals in the science and math fields,” she said. “It’s very inspiring for the girls to see that. It’s also really inspiring for them to be around other girls who are also interested in science and math.”

The dinner will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 3 at the Community Congregational Church, located at 1305 West 2nd St. It is free and open to the public. For more information, email AAUW program Chair Suzanne Antone at suzanne@suzanneantone.com.

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