The Women in Science Endeavors is working hard to combat the stereotype that certain technology-based jobs are not for women.
Saturday, April 27, continued the organization’s efforts when 325 students from area rural school districts spent the day at the Science Spectrum doing a variety of science and math-related activities. The program targets girls from rural areas in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades.
WISE program director Sheryl Lewallen believes that young girls should be told that they can be more than caregivers. She uses her professional contacts and lots of heart to encourage girls to break through what she called the “glass ceiling.” She tries to introduce WISE members to professional women who have jobs in either science- or math-related fields.
“I think they’re not encouraged to pursue these things,” Lewallen said sitting near a dinosaur exhibit at the Science Spectrum.
Math and science are important to Lewallen, an Xcel Energy employee, as they were to her children during their school years. Lewallen recalled sending her daughter, Kori Welch, to Houston for science camps, and thought there had to be another way to give girls a chance to learn about science- and math-related professions.
Lewallen’s dedication to her daughter’s interests paid off when Welch became a civil engineer.
Her daughter’s success inspired Lewallen to establish WISE Region 17 in the Lubbock area to encourage other girls to consider these types of professions. “It’s a passion for me,” Lewallen said. “I just want to give back.”
Some of the girls in the WISE program come from rural areas and aren’t used to visiting museums or even going to a movie theater, said Muleshoe sixth-grade science teacher Tracy Been. WISE opens doors for these girls and exposes them to other opportunities like dissecting cow eyes, GPS tracking and the life cycle of frogs.
Been’s daughter and WISE volunteer, Janae Pyle, is graduating from Texas Tech with a degree in biology and will begin pharmacology school in the fall.
Pyle said her mother’s passion for science influenced her to consider a science-related career during her childhood.
With an all-female environment, girls feel more comfortable participating and do not rely on their male counterparts to answer questions or volunteer.
“Here, they’re able to participate without being outshined,” Been said.
Adolescence is an unsure time, but also the time when grade point averages and study habits can have detrimental effects on a girl’s future. Lewallen wants the girls in the WISE program to feel free to express themselves.
“I don’t want these girls to feel like they have to dumb it up,” Lewallen said.
Lewallen stressed the importance of young girls pushing themselves in high school course work. She said today’s teachers have a tremendously tough job, especially with the expectations put on standardized testing. One of WISE’s goals is to enhance what is already being taught in the classroom.
“It gives my girls an experience I can’t give them in my classroom,” said Brownfield eighth-grade science teacher Daresa Melton.
Tomorrow’s job market will be full of technology-based jobs, and Lewallen said she has already seen an overwhelming number of those jobs open up with the retirement of baby boomers.
“I’d like to see these girls have a better foothold,” Lewallen said.