Girl Scouts Study Career Options Program Promotes Experience In Technology, Math, Science
Crime-solving sure is different from a Nancy Drew mystery. And for some girls, it’s a lot more fun.
“This is great,” Theresa Tveit said as she analyzed and compared fingerprints Saturday with staff from the Washington State Patrol’s crime lab. “I think it’s really interesting.”
The Spokane Valley seventh-grader was getting the basics on forensics Saturday at “Expanding Your Horizons,” a one-day conference at Spokane Falls Community College. Sponsored by the Girl Scouts Inland Empire Council, the program is designed to encourage sixth- to 12th-grade girls to explore careers in math, science and technology.
About 400 girls from 22 counties - from Kettle Falls, Wash., to Moscow, Idaho - came to Spokane to learn and experience 55 different careers first-hand.
In the Forensic Science room, Tveit and at least a dozen other girls compared marks from two bullets, checked out strands of hair with a microscope and learned of the various aspects of detective work - from interpreting blood spatter to giving testimony in court.
“Hopefully this will spark some interest,” said Jayne Avnan of the WSP crime lab, who recalled the small percentage of women in her own graduating forensics class. “I hope that I’ve given them ideas, since there are so many disciplines in forensic science. … Maybe they will see this as a possibility.”
In other classrooms, girls were busy with a variety of projects. Some sat behind computers and built their own Web sites. Others handled model neo-natal babies and learned how to take care of them. And some were able to learn about zoo keeping and see a New Guinea singing dog, brought to the classroom by the staff at Cat Tales Zoological Park.
“Expanding Your Horizons” is an opportunity for girls to look at career options they may not have considered in the past, said Geri Proctor, community relations manager for the Girl Scouts. The conference also introduces the students to women in the various fields, who then become potential role models.
Most important, being exposed to women in these careers helps “develop a can-do attitude” among the girls, Proctor said.
Attending the conference obviously paid off for Renae Arnold of Spokane, who went to her first conference more than 10 years ago as a seventh-grader.
Arnold, now a senior teller at Washington Mutual, talked to the girls Saturday about careers in banking. When she was younger, she, too, was in these girls’ shoes - daunted by the technicalities of math and science, she said. But after learning about banking during the conference, she started setting goals.
“(The conference) gave me an opportunity to see the big picture and the road ahead of me,” Arnold said. It helped her turn the phrase, “It would be fun to be …” into “Yes, I can be …”
“Expanding Your Horizons” was established in 1976 by the Math/ Science Network. It has expanded to more than 30 states and is attended by 43,500 girls each year. Spokane had its first conference in 1978, organized by a group of business women and educators. The event was held every year until 1998, when organizers no longer had the time to make it happen.
So the Girl Scouts picked up the sponsorship this year.
It was hard to get the word out after a two-year hiatus, Girl Scouts organizers said. To spread the news, they sent about 21,000 brochures last spring to 289 schools.
“They really gave us a chance to learn and work together and to meet people,” said Amanda Skogen, an eighth-grader from Mountainview Middle School. Skogen, who arrived at the conference with a busload of other girls from the Valley, now wants to pursue a career in software development, she said.