No. 14 Vol. 3
New View Media Group • 1-800-691-7549
February 13, 2018
Wayne Valley Tackles STEM With Night To STEM-member
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By Anya Bochman hen Olivia Davis, Design lead at IBM Cloud, met Wayne Valley High School junior Kara Celi through a #BuiltByGirls mentorship program in July 2017, the mentor and student began discussing an upcoming STEM event at Celi’s school. The result, a panel discussion titled A Night to STEM-member, came to fruition on January 25 at Wayne Valley, starting at 3 p.m. “We brainstormed and mapped this event out for a few months [using] our networks to find people to fill an industry panel, and then three speakers to speak,” Davis said. “We had an amazingly diverse panel and speakers - ranging in age, demographics and careers - from gemology to mechanical engineering to UX design.” Described by the school as an event “designed to leave you more informed about careers in Science, Technology, En-
A Night to STEM-member panel and organizers at Wayne Valley High School on January 25. Photo courtesy/Brian Faehndrich
gineering and Mathematics; and leave you inspired to solve problems you see every day,” a Night to STEM-member featured panel speakers Derek Spain, gemologist at Jack of Diamonds Intl; Yasmine El Garhi, User Experience (UX) designer at IBM; Nick Benzoni, mechanical engineer at MakerBot; Diana Kris Navarro, computer science at Rutgers University; and Allen Hoffmeyer, derivatives trader at Koch Supply & Trading. After the industry panel answered questions about the experience of working in STEM fields, three speakers participated in a “Pour Your Heart Out” session, which combined career description with advice on succeeding in a STEM career path. The session was headed by Jennifer Strycharz, systems engineer at Sikorsky Aircraft Corp; Shaily Dalesandro, computer systems compliance manager at Covance; and Victor Dibia, research staff member at the Human-Agent Collaboration Lab at IBM. The night concluded with student projects on display for attendees, networking, pizza and raffle winner announcements. Brian Faehndrich, assistant principal at Wayne Valley High School, spoke of the importance of educating the students and general public about STEM careers.
“We as educators are recognizing the many jobs that are in the STEM field,” Faehndrich said. “We have a great department here; Wayne in general has a fantastic technology program. We always want to encourage that in kids.” Davis, who grew up in Atlanta, Ga., spoke of another aspect of STEM education – namely, the underrepresentation of women and steps that can be taken to correct this. Currently, women make up half of the total U.S. college-educated workforce, but only 29 percent of the science and engineering workforce, 7.9 percent of mechanical engineering and only 10.7 percent of electrical engineering. “Opportunities to learn about STEM, computer science, women in the workplace or female leadership was really not a part of my high school experience,” Davis stated. “I wanted to get a jump start on showing these high school students what leadership and self-started initiatives can look like.” Faehndrich also recognized the disparity, and shared similar objectives of bringing STEM awareness to “non-traditional participants.” “Some [students] may not be aware of continued on page 4