Society of Women Engineers Takes Outreach Event on the Road

News Release — April 14, 2022 — Community outreach is central to the mission of the Utah State University section of the Society of Women Engineers, and in March the club held two education events — one for high schoolers in Cache Valley and one for elementary schoolers in Blanding.

On March 18 and 19, the club hosted a group of about 40 high school girls from around Utah for a weekend of science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM, activities on the USU Logan campus. The purpose of the event was to help girls who are curious about STEM explore the possibilities.

Although this event is intended to be annual, the pandemic put it on a two-year hiatus, so club members were excited about its return.

“Bringing these girls together brings a sense of empowerment and a sense of inclusivity,” said Daniella Rivera, the club’s vice president of outreach. “There’s only so far you can go by yourself. Having a community that you can always fall back to, where you connect and have similar experiences, is very empowering and supportive.”

Later in the month, the club took their Engineering Extravaganza Jr. event on the road for the first time. The group has previously hosted this event for elementary schoolers of all genders in Cache Valley and wanted to expand their impact by offering it in a different community. Their March 29 activity was held in Blanding for Diné, or Navajo, students.

With the help of the students’ teachers, club members created STEM activities that incorporated Diné history, culture, and values. For example, in the biological engineering workshop, students learned about how DNA extraction can be used to better understand the herbs and plants used in traditional healing practices.

“For each workshop, I made sure to make it very evident that we weren’t just bringing these workshops there,” Rivera said. “I really wanted it to connect to the community so that they could really see themselves going into something like engineering, rather than it just being another workshop.”

The students were excited to engage with the activities and because of the event’s reception, club members plan to continue expanding its reach.

“The teachers gave us really good feedback and emailed us to say they want us to come back and bring similar resources,” Rivera said.

Because students from marginalized backgrounds don’t always see themselves represented in engineering, Rivera said it’s important to specifically communicate to them that their ideas and experiences are valuable and needed. Outreach events like this are one way to do that.

“Everyone across the board needs to feel like their opinion is valued and their ideas are valued or they’re not going to want to be there,” she said.

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Writer: Matilyn Mortensen, matilyn.mortensen@usu.edu, 435-797-7512

Contact: Daniella Rivera, outreach.ususwe@gmail.com