Math Options Program Celebrates 12 Years of STEM
Penn State Behrend senior honored with Vision and Passion Award
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A total of 246 seventh- and eighth-grade girls gathered at Penn State Behrend on May 13, for the 12th annual Math Options Career Day. They kicked off the day with the School Challenge Contest. |
Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, hosted its 12th annual Math Options Career Day this week for 246 seventh- and eighth-grade girls from 40 schools in Erie, Crawford, Potter, and Warren counties. An outreach program hosted by Continuing Education at Penn State Behrend, Math Options is designed to spark girls’ interest in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields.
This year’s attendees participated in the annual School Challenge Contest where individual schools complete and submit the same design project. Groups then attended three of a possible 30 interactive workshops, such as in “Neuroanatomy: Why Little Bo Peep’s Sheep is Lost,” “I.D. Dasie: The Design Process,” and “Zoo Math,” plus a lunchtime activity fair. Representatives from 11 regional organizations presented the workshops, including Penn State Behrend, GE Transportation, Lord Corporation, Erie Insurance Group, WJET-TV and FOX 66, Shriners Hospital for Children, Knox Law Firm, Erie Zoological Society, Junior Achievement of Western Pennsylvania, Carnegie Mellon University, and Wegmans School of Pharmacy.
Attendees were also given first-hand advice from two keynote speakers: Sara Grisé, coastal outreach specialist for Pennsylvania Sea Grant, an outreach unit of Penn State Behrend, and Nina Baird, a Ph.D. candidate in building performance and diagnostics at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
Grisé is responsible for outreach and education for the public on coastal environmental issues and serves as a point of contact and support for aquatic invasive species prevention and control efforts. An Erie native, she encouraged attendees to take as many math and science courses as possible. Grisé earned her Bachelor of Science in biology from Penn State Behrend in 2006 and is interested in pursuing a master’s degree in aquatic biology or ecology.
Baird is working on her dissertation, which focuses on the energy efficiency of low-temperature water systems for building heating and cooling. During her remarks, she advised attendees that “anything worth doing is worth doing poorly—meaning it’s okay to flounder.”
As a doctoral student, Baird has served as a consultant for the Architect of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on improving energy and water use in the buildings it manages. She earned master’s degrees in public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and in sustainable design from Carnegie Mellon University as well as a Bachelor of Science in English from Amherst College in Mass.
Penn State Behrend senior honored with Vision and Passion Award
In addition, Erie native and Penn State Behrend senior Eden Roseborough was honored with Math Options’ 2008 Vision and Passion Award in recognition of her many contributions to the program. Roseborough told of how she came home from school in seventh grade with a 23 percent on a math exam. “I told my mom that I hated math,” she explains. “That was obviously the wrong thing to say because my mother loves math.”
Roseborough first attended a Math Options summer camp. As a high school student at Northwest Pennsylvania Collegiate Academy, she teamed up with Penn State Behrend faculty members for a summer research project and participated in the college’s Minority College Experience/Women in Science and Engineering (MCE/WISE) program. Since arriving at Penn State Behrend, Roseborough has been a faithful volunteer for Math Options Career Day and credits her mom with encouraging her to participate in these outreach programs.
Roseborough graduates this spring with two Bachelor of Science degrees, one in electrical engineering and the other in computer engineering.
Click here for a photo gallery of this year’s Math Options Career Day.
Math Options began at Penn State Behrend in 1997. The program strives to increase awareness of careers in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields during a critical stage in a girl’s academic development; provide opportunities for girls to explore career options through interaction with professional women in these fields; provide on-going support and encouragement throughout their educations; and provide teachers and counselors with information and resources to reinforce a girl’s interest and aptitude in these areas. The program also partners with other Penn State Behrend initiatives that offer STEM-enrichment activities for girls, such as College for Kids and Minority College Experience/Women in Science and Engineering (MCE/WISE).
For more information, visit behrend.psu.edu.