A message from the IGED Co-Chairs, Amanda Joyce & Caitlyn Sarna:
Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day (IGED) was held virtually on Friday, February 18, 2022 for over 140 eighth-grade girls, across the United States, to introduce them to STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) careers through presentations, panel discussions, experiments, and interactive learning. The event overall was a large success. In addition to the eighth-grade girls, we had 73 mentors engaged throughout the day to assist with questions and keep the girls involved. The schedule of the day is below which included welcoming remarks from Dr. Geraldine Richmond, The Undersecretary for Science and Innovation from The United States Department of Energy and Congressman Bill Foster.
The goal of the day is to immerse the girls in discussion and topics on various careers and opportunities that are available to them either through school or career paths such as internships as well as to provide them guidance and mentorship about persevering through biases and doubt of themselves to achieve their own greatness.
While the event atmosphere was different not being in-person, the program did not disappoint. There is nothing better than receiving positive notes after an event that reaps the benefits of the hard work Here is what some of the guardians of these young women sent to us after the event,
“Thank you for this opportunity for my daughter. She really enjoyed the day—it was so well organized! Appreciate it!”
“Thank you so much for this opportunity!! My daughter enjoyed it immensely!! She spent hours after playing a hacking/cyber security game online!”
A message from a school’s director of technology and curriculum said, “What an exceptional day of learning and collaboration Argonne Lab has put on together to ignite passion and increase confidence in our young engineers. We are excited to see how this event will impact the career course of our future leaders!”
In short, IGED is a day that will forever be an amazing day in the eyes of these young STEAM women. We as co-chairs would like to thank the steering committee who spent countless hours over the last several months working to make this virtual IGED day a success. We also want to thank the mentors and the support staff who took time out of their day to provide each girl a direct line of communication with a scientist, technologist, engineer, artist, or mathematician. Thank you to our speakers throughout the day who provided their encouraging words. Finally, thank you to all the girls who joined us.
