Science Fair for Girls Enlightens Minds and Expands Horizons

(Salem) - Many middle school girls may not realize how many careers in the math and science fields exist for women. They're exciting jobs, and they pay pretty well too. These range from biology, to firefighting, to medical professions and beyond. Hundreds of Salem/Keizer area middle school girls visited a science fair at Willamette University in Salem over the weekend, to learn more about this very interesting career field.

Erikka Britten was one of the high school aids who attended the program when she was in middle school, "Science is needed for so many things like life and jobs, and this is just to help middle school girls see where they can go in careers."

Erikka Britten and high school aid Marika Straw say they care about middle school girls finding an interest in science. Marika Straw says they were glad to spend their day as volunteer aids. "Basically I'm volunteering and helping out and doing whatever I can to help the middle school girls get to their classes, help them find their buildings if they get lost."

The middle school girls went to a number of different classes on scientific careers. One career professional who wanted to share her experience with the girls is Doctor Jenny Nearhing of Salem, "What I wanted to explain was why I wanted to be a doctor, what it takes to be a doctor, and what the best part of being a doctor is, which is getting to use your science to help people and feeling good about going to work every day."

Girls in the program learned a great deal about the different science and math careers. It wasn't always a wide-open option as it is now according to Straw, "I really like science and I think this is a great workshop to have for girls, especially since it's usually a male dominated field." The truth is, women have always worked in science, but men have dominated the scientific fields for centuries. "Not that I'm against males, but I really think it is good for girls to go to a workshop like this that's so fun, because they make science fun."

Britten says she has always been motivated to learn more, "For me, I never lost an interest in math and science, and this really does help. Like when I came here, it showed me some careers that sounded really fun, so it got me thinking." Now Britten plans to become a psycologist.

Straw says the event last Saturday was fun and interesting, and definetely not your average day in school. "They're disecting a fish over there in the other room, I heard, so... it's pretty cool."

For some, the fish disecting part was kind of hard, but most of the girls who attended the event, which included field trips in the afternoon around Salem, say they learned a lot and had a great time, just as Marika Straw did as a middle schooler, "I wouldn't know what career I'd be interested in now if I hadn't come."

Dr. Jenny Nearhing agrees, "For me probably the biggest impact was the people I met in junior high and high school, that made me decide I definetely want to be a doctor."

Perhaps in a few years, a whole new group of women doctors, mathematicians, firefighters and scientists will begin treating and healing people. Women who once attended a science fair at Willamette University.