This year’s second annual Girls in STEM conference was held at Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas, on May 20–22. The students chosen to participate were Aliyah Johnson, Yanitza Velasquez, Audree Nealy, Licole Culp, and Shala Wheeler. During this two-day conference, these students had a chance to experience and to explore the many careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). They received exposure through hands-on activities in laboratory settings, critical thinking and discussion exercises, college campus and STEM facilities tours, discussion on current STEM issues, and interactions with STEM professionals and college students, to name a few. Our UB students greatly enjoyed the conference and had great things to say. Below are a couple of responses about their experience at the conference:
"My experience with doing Girls in STEM was awesome because that’s something I never got a chance to take part of. I really enjoyed meeting new people and tried doing other things that other people like to do. The classes I liked the most that I had was Chemistry Gets Cheesy in my bacterial class. I feel like if I can do it all over again, I would, and try and meet more new people."
—Licole Culp
"This weekend, I learned that perseverance is my best friend. I came out of my shell and met new people. I also grew closer to the people in my program. These experiences made me realize how much I love science, and I’m very interested in engineering. Underwater Exploration was my favorite session. These activities have shown me that working with others that I don’t know is not a bad thing. This weekend reassured me that I do want to have a Ph.D. in marine biology. And now I want to pursue astronomy. This helped me so much. 'You are. You can. You will!'"
—Audree Nealy
