Science, Technology, Engineering, Math

Last week I was lucky enough to escape the every day droning of work and spend my time rather with a bunch of young girls, hoping to get them excited about STEM topics and conducting various engineering focused workshops (STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering and Math).  It was a camp that was put on, almost entirely, by GE, at no cost to the girls or their families.  The content was developed by GE employees (including yours truly!) and mostly revolved in one way or another around technology or engineering.  We also had what I consider to be one of the coolest logos ever.

This is absolutely the winkled back side of my GE Girls shirt...

My week was awesome, getting to hang out with young ladies (rising 6th graders through rising 9th graders) and essentially celebrate being a nerd.  We talked about density and buoyancy, then made boats and sent them floating on the reflecting pool in front of the library.  We talked about chemical reactions, then made Alka Seltzer rockets and had a contest to see whose went the highest.  We coded and made some Lego Mindstorm robots dance.  We talked about circuits, switches and electrons, and then made our own working version of a dance pad (Dance Dance Revolution Style).  We made silly putty, ice cream and several batches of lip gloss.

And came up with some fabulous names for our lip gloss

On top of all of this, I got to spend the week hanging out on campus.  I jump upon any chance that gets me back to Notre Dame, especially  in the summer time, a rare season that I did not spend under the shadow of the Golden Dome.  Arguably, one of the best season to be on campus.  Hiding out in the new, shining engineering building during the day and running the lakes in the afternoon was how I would like to pretend how I spent my undergrad years, but it would be a lie.  I ran maybe once every 2 weeks outside (it was South Bend, and I do not run outside once the temperature falls below 40 degrees) and my time was usually spent in the rickety old engineering building, which will always be near and dear to my heart (students these days, I tell you, are spoiled).  But that is exactly how I got to spend last week and it was perfect.

In case you are wondering, yes, I desperately am trying to relive my college days.

Anyways, I just wanted to write and tell you about the good week I had last week and maybe even admit to the revelation I also had, that went something like this: I am very lucky to work for a company that values things like STEM outreach in girls.  So much so that they put on this camp, that besides some good PR, doesn't really benefit them all to much.  These aren't college students we're trying to recruit to join our ranks, these are young ladies that aren't even sure if college is for them.  And we're doing everything in our power to show them that it absolutely is.

Check my instagram feed for some more fun pictures and videos of the week.  Or you  know, #GEGirlsND.