DMEC hosts second annual Girl Power to the Max contest

By Patrick Massey

GILLHAM - Anyone stopping by the De Queen-Mena Educational Cooperative on Thursday, Feb. 9 would have been amazed by the array of projects on display created through the use of CNC cutting and CNC laser technology.

What made it really cool? Every piece on display was designed and produced by a local high school girl.

The projects were created for this year’s Girl Power to the Max competition. Hosted by the DeQueen-Mena Educational Cooperative, the event’s core goal is to generate interest in non-traditional careers for young women in the manufacturing and construction sectors.

Around three dozen girls from 10 area school districts attended Thursday’s event in Gillham. This was the second year for Girl Power to the Max, the brainchild of Stacy Southerland, a career and technical education coordinator for the Gillham-based cooperative.

Southerland successfully obtained a grant in 2022 allowing the cooperative to purchase 12 laser-cutting systems and three plasma-based systems to be placed in schools across the region.

If the technology sounds sophisticated, that’s because it is. But Southerland says it’s vital young women know they are just as capable of finding a career in a field using these technologies as a young man would be.

“We’re trying to encourage girls that there are high-wage, high-skill careers in demand that are going unfulfilled that they can be very well-prepared for,” Southerland said.

Career readiness is an ever-increasing goal in education. The idea, educators explain, is for a student — one who doesn’t plan on attending college — to graduate high school on Friday and be prepared to land a career on Monday. Given the growing need for workers with technical backgrounds, it’s critical students are introduced to these career options as early as possible.

“What’s huge is that this event gives them an opportunity to use CNC equipment, to see the business owners and build skills for career readiness as soon as they walk out of high school,” Southerland said.

It’s an opportunity local young women are not wasting. The Girl Power to the Max event grew from a local event in 2022 to a regional competition in 2023 with over a hundred participants and over three times the total of submitted projects.

“I think this is important because it gives us girls an opportunity to do something we like rather than it always being about what the boys do,” she explained. “I feel that boys our age think they can do stuff better than what we can. But this gives us an opportunity to show them that we can do better than they can.” event.

“I thought this was going to be a really good idea to come and see what I could do,” she said. “I made a foosball table, something fun me and my friends could play with. Something I can use after the competition.”

Mount Ida had two on its team to compete in this year's Girl Power to the Max CNC cutting competition held Feb. 9 in Gillham. The event was held to introduce young women to non-traditional careers in the construction and manufacturing sectors.

“Fast forward to this year, it’s year two and we’ve grown to a regional event,” she explained. “We have three cooperatives that are participating, we have 38 projects registered which we’ve grown from 10 last year, and we have 10 districts in total participating this year.”

Participants were tasked with entering a CNC-designed project to the competition. Winners from Thursday’s event will go on next month to a final regional contest in Texarkana. Top prizes at Thursday’s event included cash and tuition waivers at UA Cossatot and UA Rich Mountain.

Kinlee Stivers was one of the participants at this year’s Girl Power to the Max competition — her second to attend. Stivers’ hand-crafted wooden bench featuring a CNC-designed Razorback emblem was an instant crowd favorite. It’s a piece the Horatio 11th grader was very proud to show. But, most importantly, it highlighted her belief that these are the kinds of projects young women can and should pursue.

Stivers said her future career plans don’t include CNC-machining. She wants to earn a degree in physical therapy— another career much in demand.

Yet, she’s proud to be familiar with a skill as technical as laser and plasma cutting. If nothing else, it provides her with the know-how to make some really great Christmas gifts for her family.

“I can at least do it as a side job,” she said.

Maggie McDonald, a 10th grader at Foreman High School, was another participant in the competition. She entered a miniature but fully functional and completely handcrafted foosball table. It was an excellent piece and demonstrates the knowledge these girls brought to the

McDonald is thinking of a career in dentistry but is glad she possesses the ability to do something as hands-on and technical as CNC machining.

“I would like to get into welding because I like to do it,” she explained. “I don’t know if it’s something I’ll do but I like that it’s an option for me.”

McDonald seconded the idea that Girl Power to the Max highlights the technical career opportunities for young women.

“I feel like we don’t have as much opportunity for these kinds of things as the boys do,” she said. “They always rub it in our faces if they think they did better than us, when actually we did pretty good.”

Both girls plan to attend next year and hope other young women in the region take advantage of the opportunity provided through the competition.

“It’s something I really do recommend,” Stivers said. “It’s a really good opportunity and experience.”

“And it’s a lot of fun,” McDonald added. Parents and anyone interested in learning more about this year’s Girl Power to the Max competition can find lots of photos of the event on the Facebook page of the DeQueen-Mena Education Service Cooperative.