Keep Career Door Open Strong Base In Math And Science Will Give Girls More Options When They Choose Life’s Work

Every year at Spokane’s career conference for girls, organizers observe a recurring phenomenon. Two sessions, one led by a veterinarian, the other by a neo-natal nurse, are always overflowing.

Dogs and babies. They’re apparently irresistible to teenage girls.

Both veterinary medicine and neo-natal nursing are fine career fields. But how can parents and teachers guide girls to the unusual and potentially satisfying professions that the girls haven’t yet imagined?

First of all, parents can register their daughters in the Expanding Your Horizons conference on March 22 at Spokane Falls Community College. Approximately 1,100 girls will attend workshops led by women in 72 different professions, from actuary to zookeeper. The major theme: Keep taking math and science!

The conference was started in 1982 by two Spokane math teachers, both men, who were concerned about the negative messages their daughters were hearing.

One of them, Nick Nickoloff, a Spokane Falls Community College math professor, vividly remembers his daughter’s experience.

“She was told in junior high that you couldn’t be in advanced math and science, beat all of the boys on the test and expect to date them later on,” Nickoloff says.

That, says Nickoloff, is a dreadful lie to perpetuate on young women.

Just like boys, girls need to hear that they’ll be expected to support themselves financially, and that they have the right to pursue satisfying careers.

Parents must ask about math homework and provide support during the rough passages. Just because a girl complains about a pre-algebra class at age 13 doesn’t mean she won’t later ace calculus.

Expanding Your Horizons organizers offer the following advice for parents:

Encourage your daughter to job-shadow or volunteer in fields that intrigue her. She can spend a day with an architect or volunteer on a summer geology field project.

Be supportive of the discoveries she makes. When a girl checks out a career and discovers she hates it, Linda Vincent, a career counselor at Ferris High School, says, “Good for you. That’s important information to know.”

Make arrangements for girls to talk to college professors in the academic areas that interest them. A local history or chemistry professor will know of unusual career opportunities in those fields.

Look for ways to combine a girl’s interests. Mia Bertanelli, an assistant biochemistry professor at Gonzaga University, once counseled a student who was struggling in chemistry, but loved biology and art. Bertanelli helped her explore a career as a medical illustrationist. That young woman is now aiming for a graduate program in medical illustration at Johns Hopkins University.

Tell girls that by establishing a strong academic base in math and science, they’ll keep their career options wide open.

Capt. Grace Tiscareno-Sato, the conference’s publicity chairman, followed that advice. After a bachelor’s degree in architecture at the University of California at Berkeley, she trained as an Air Force navigator.

“I was very confident in my abilities and I wasn’t intimidated by all the math I would have to do,” says Tiscareno-Sato.

At Fairchild , she has been navigating KC-135 tankers which refuel other planes in mid-air.

This year Tiscareno-Sato, who is 30, will miss the Expanding Your Horizons conference. Last Friday, she flew to Italy, where she’ll spend three months planning flights for the peace-keeping mission in Bosnia.

Adjusting air speeds, evaluating wind effects - she uses math on the job every day.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Staff illustration by Charles Waltmire

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: ON THE HORIZON Expanding Your Horizons, a career conference for girls in the sixth through 12th grades, will be at 8 a.m. March 22 at the Spokane Falls Community College Student Union Building. Admission is $12, with registration due Tuesday. For more information, call 245-3518; website, www.gntech.net/eyh.