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Howard Tech Council Sponsors Johns Hopkins APL’s Annual Girl Power Expo

Friday, March 15, 2019

On March 3, 2019, our Howard Tech Council’s (HTC) Women in Tech Affinity Group (WiT) proudly sponsored Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab’s (APL) 13th Annual Girl Power Expo for the fourth year in a row, providing seven interactive hands-on workshops for the events attendees. The Girl Power Expo is a free opportunity for elementary and middle school girls to learn about careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).

The event featured hands-on activities, cool demonstrations, and take-home materials for the girls to help encourage an interest in STEM careers. Participants can talk to professional women in STEM careers such as aerospace, computer science, electrical engineering, geology, information technology, and space mission engineering.

“We provide hands-on workshops within the STEM field, with computing, environmental services, cabling, 3-D printing, you name it! We’ve tapped into the stem community to provide these educational opportunities for the students,” said HTC Executive Director Tracy Turner. “What we try to do with these young ladies is get them interested in STEM careers and then help them on a mentorship level to keep them engaged so that they will stay in class, entry level positions, and find a sustainable career in those STEM fields.”

Additionally, there were workshops that discussed the importance of developing soft skills such as asserting a firm handshake, maintaining eye contact to show interest, and avoiding body language ques that may indicate weakness versus leadership.

APL’s STEM outreach efforts date back to 1976. Today, its related educational initiatives reach about 3,500 students and community residents yearly, through events such as Girl Power, the Maryland MESA (Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement) program, STEM Academy, and ASPIRE high school mentoring.

“It is my hope that we continue to lead the way in gender equity for STEM careers, and Girl Power is one step toward achieving that objective,” said Dwight Carr, Member of the Howard Tech Council and APL’s STEM Program Manager.

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