Helping girls discover the vast opportunities for them in tech is a passion of mine, so I was elated when the coordinators of Bellevue College’s Expanding Your Horizons (EYH) high school conference found my bio in the FabFems directory and asked me to  present a hands-on workshop for middle school and high school girls. FabFems is a tool to connect girls, parents, and educators with role models and mentors like myself who are STEM professionals. The FabFems directory is accessible to young women, girl-serving STEM programs, and other organizations that are working to increase career awareness and interest in STEM. 

The conference, which was aimed specifically at high school girls, attracted over 600 attendees to participate in half a day of  seminars and workshops. My workshop, which I presented three times, was was called “A Great Technology Needs Great Marketing.” The girls broke up into small teams to create a marketing strategy for the launch of a new technology product that I was working on at Microsoft. It was a real-world example that the girls could use to learn about a career in STEM marketing.     

I was impressed to see how smart and engaged many of the high school girls were – one group even created a very similar strategy to what we used for the real product launch. I discovered that the older high school girls were much more eager to learn and stayed after the workshop to ask me questions about my career. Other younger girls in middle-school were less interested in learning and required different ways to stay motivated.

The conference organizers provided feedback forms for all workshops and shared the results with me. The overwhelming feedback for my session was very positive. It was satisfying to see high school girls eager to discover the choices they have in STEM and STEM marketing. I would definitely go back and run a workshop next year. Next time I’ll be sure to bring treats or different interactive elements to entice the younger participants that need a bit more motivation to engage.

It’s hard to be what you can’t see. That’s why it’s so important for these girls to be exposed to people who look like them, have similar interests, and are excited about STEM.  If you are a women in a STEM-related field, please consider joining FabFems to connect with youth. If you are a parent, teacher, or student, learn more about FabFems and get in touch with role models like me by visiting www.fabfems.org or emailing info@fabfems.org.